The past three decades saw China’s phenomenal rise with respect to economic and military capacity.
Up to the late 2000s, the People’s Republic of China seems to have followed Deng Xiaoping’s dictum of observing the international situation, securing its position and keeping a low profile. Since then unilateral Chinese acts, widely perceived to be coercive, have increased in number and severity, reaching its climax with the establishment of a number of artificial islands in the South China Sea. Chinese understatement has given way to assertiveness if not arrogance, resulting in various confrontations with the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan and an enhanced involvement of the United States. The core issue remains what other states, especially China‘s adversaries, ought to do to evade escalation without compromising their claims.
In PRIF Report No. 134 “Facing China. Crises or Peaceful Coexistence in the South China Sea”, Peter Kreuzer compares the crisis-prone Sino-Philippines with the rather harmonious Sino-Malaysian relations. Depicting that Chinese behavior in territorial conflicts co-varies with the opponent’s level of recognizing Chinese concepts of national self and world order, that is to say in the fulfillment of the requirement of deference and giving face (respect) to China, the author thus argues that displaying respect towards China mitigates Chinese conflict behavior without compromising the opponent’s territorial claims.
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