Chinese and Western Interpretations of China's "Peaceful Development" Discourse: A Rule-Oriented Constructivist Perspective

Abstract

This paper offers a rule-oriented constructivist perspective on understanding the distinct Chinese and western interpretations of China's "peaceful development" discourse framework. It takes the correlations of discourse, rules and rule initiated by Nicolas Onuf as an analytical tool to identify the discrepancies between and within the Chinese and western patterns of discourse, rules and rule on this issue. Critical analyses of Chinese and western discourse are provided as a source for understanding the lack of trust between China and the West on China's "peaceful development". This methodology, which synthesizes the rule-oriented constructivist perspective and concrete discourse analysis, is an innovated attempt to implement the conventional positivist perspective on this issue.