EAI Fellows Program Working Paper Series No.38
 

Author

Yuan-kang Wang is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Western Michigan University. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago, and was an International Security Fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies. Wang specializes in international relations, East Asian security, and U.S.-China relations. His research examines the nexus between international relations theory and historical China. He is author of Harmony and War: Confucian Culture and Chinese Power Politics (Columbia University Press, 2011), which examines the influence of Confucian culture on Chinese grand strategy, use of force, and war aims. Wang has published articles on peripheral nationalism in China, nationalist mobilization during Taiwan’s democratization, and U.S. extended deterrence in the Taiwan Strait.

Much has been written about China’s rise, but few analysts have examined the issue from a historical perspective. Short-term analyses, important as they are, lack the depth and breadth of longitudinal studies. Both the academic and policy communities are in need of a long-term view of the impacts of a rising power in East Asia. As we assess the influence of China’s rise on East Asia and beyond, what can we learn from the past? Can international relations (IR) theory offer guidance? East Asian history contains rich, yet mostly untapped, deposits of empirical data for IR scholars to build and test their theories. Employing IR theory, this article examines the experience of the latest East Asian regional hegemon, Qing China (1644-1912), and uses insights gained from the research to shed light on China’s broad international behavior today.

The central question is two-fold: How does a state become a hegemon in its region of the world? And once it becomes dominant, what strategies does the hegemon employ to maintain supremacy in the international system and minimize resistance by lesser states?

In the aftermath of the Cold War the field of international relations began an intense debate about balance of power theory. Realists and their critics have argued over whether balances of power recurrently form in general, and specifically whether a balancing coalition against the United States, the current hegemon, will emerge. Some argue that the “unipolar moment” of American preponderance of power will be short-lived due to the tendency of states to balance power, while others consider that American primacy will be enduring because the balancing mechanism is weak. An important but oft-neglected question is how a hegemon maintains, and prolongs, its leading position in the system. The focus on power balancing, however important, only tells half the story; it neglects how states pursue power and maintains dominance. Classical realist Hans Morganthau sees international politics as a “struggle for power.” Offensive realist John Mearsheimer views “maximizing relative power” as the primary behavior of states. A domination-seeking state can maneuver to expand its power while preventing a counterbalancing coalition from forming. In contrast to strategies of resistance, strategies of domination have received scant attention in the international relations literature. This is unfortunate because domination, along with resistance, is an integral part of international politics. International relations theory should seek not only to analyze a state’s decision to resist and balance power, but also to explore how a state becomes dominant and maintains hegemony.

The People’s Republic of China inherited much of the territories of the Qing empire. The Manchus of the Qing dynasty expanded from a small area in present northeastern China to become “the most successful dynasty of conquest in Chinese history.” The territorial reach of the Qing empire more than doubled that of its predecessor, the Ming dynasty. The Qing conquered vast swaths of territory and became a regional hegemon. It established a hierarchical tribute system to manage its foreign relations. For foreign polities, interactions with the Qing followed tributary “rules of the game.” The Qing empire was a multiethnic state comprising Manchus, Han Chinese, Mongolians, Tibetans, Uighurs, and other minorities. Qing China enjoyed two centuries of preeminence in East Asia, with lesser states deferring to its power. It was not until the Opium War in 1839 that Qing power was substantially challenged.

The next section proposes a theory of hegemonic management. I argue that a hegemon will expand political interests abroad and establish rules of the game for the system. I then examine the Manchu state-building process, conquest of China, consolidation of conquest, and westward expansions. Upon becoming the regional hegemon in Asia, Qing troops marched westward and conquered a vast swath of territory in Inner and Central Asia, doubling the size of Ming China. To dictate the boundaries of appropriate behavior, the Qing adopted the tributary rules of the game to govern diplomatic interactions between Asian polities. Finally, I discuss the implications of this study for understanding China’s rise today.

A Theory of Hegemonic Management

The term “hegemony” is used in different and confused ways. Some use it interchangeably with “empire,” others consider it as a form of legitimate authority, and still others views hegemony as morally repugnant. In this article, I adopt a narrow definition of “hegemony” and distinguish it from “empire.” Hegemony rests on material power. For a state to be a hegemon, there must be a preponderance of military force over other political actors in the system. John Mearsheimer defines hegemon as the great power that dominates the system and enjoys so much military supremacy that "no other state has the military wherewithal to put up a serious fight against it." Except for the hegemon, there are no other great powers in the system. In addition to military superiority, hegemony is also about possessing a preponderance of economic resources, such as raw materials, capital, market access, and productive capacity. These economic resources are necessary to support the hegemon’s military capabilities. Having preponderant power, however, does not mean that the hegemon will always get the outcome it prefers, but it certainly creates unprecedented opportunities to do so. The emphasis on material capabilities does not rule out the social dimension of hegemony, such as authority, legitimacy, status, or prestige. These social aspects do not operate in a vacuum; they are usually derivative of the power relations underlying interactions among political units. Material resources are the necessary condition for a hegemon to exercise authority, enjoy prestige, or generate legitimacy. Compared to non-material factors, material power has more causal weight in producing the desired outcome.

Hegemony should be distinguished from empire. Hegemony is about possessing an overwhelming power advantage over others. A hegemon’s military power and wealth must be “stronger than all second-ranked powers acting as members of a counterbalancing coalition.” An empire, on the other hand, is about relationships of political control. It is the rule exercised by one political actor over subordinate ones in order to regulate their external and internal behaviors. A state can have an empire without itself being a hegemon. For instance, Britain had an overseas empire in the nineteenth century, but its land power and share of world GDP was far from hegemonic. The United Kingdom built a large formal empire, covering nearly a quarter of the world’s land surface, while indirectly ruling parts of Asia and Africa through local potentates. Yet, it was “never truly hegemonic.” In contrast, the United States was a regional hegemon in the Western Hemisphere, but its direct imperial reach was much more limited, covering only fourteen dependencies throughout the world, about one-half of one percent of the world’s land surface. A hegemon can have a small formal empire, or none at all, but it can still exert significant political influence in the system. Hegemonies require more material capabilities than do empires. Compared to empires, regional hegemony is more difficult to achieve, but it is still possible. Recent examples of regional hegemons include the Mughal dynasty in South Asia (1556-1707), the Qing dynasty in Asia (1683-1839), and the United States in the Western Hemisphere (1900-present)...(Continued)