China and ASEAN: The Evolution of Relationship under a Discursive Institutionalist Perspective

Abstract

China's relationship with certain institutions is a popular topic in international relation studies. In this article I will adopt a discursive institutionalist perspective to present how the transformation of China's foreign ideas influences China's relationship with the ASEAN, the most institutionalized regional arrangement in Asia. This article examines China's foreign policy ideas from Mao Zedong's time until the end of Hu Jintao's mandate, separated into different time spans with historical conjunctures. China's foreign policy ideas will be analyzed according to three different levels of generalities (philosophical level, paradigm level and policy level), and two types of ideas (cognitive and normative) as suggested by Discursive Institutionalism. The relationship between China and ASEAN will be examined under the larger framework of China's foreign policy ideas, and I attempt to contribute to a deepened understanding of China's relationship with the ASEAN.