A Hierarchical Vision of Order: Understanding Chinese Foreign Policy in Asia revolves around a topic that has fascinated, and continues to fascinate, many scholars: the relationship between China's imperial history and traditions, on the one hand, and its contemporary foreign policy and institutions, on the other.
With the sitting General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Jinping, often described as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao and depicted by pundits as a new emperor, the arrival of Antoine Roth's book seems quite in step with the times. Drawing from the English school of international relations theory, the core argument of A Hierarchical Vision of Order is that ancient ideas about the creation of an enduring Sinocentric political order have survived into the modern era and continue to guide Chinese foreign policy today.
After setting the theoretical stage in the first chapter, Roth presents the ideal blueprint of hierarchical order based on the foundational texts of Confucianism and Legalism that formed the bedrock of the “imperial orthodoxy.” The following chapters are meant to show that Chinese leaders and intellectuals throughout history held those ideas and often put them into practice. To make this argument, Roth utilizes a vast range of primary and secondary sources, including academic works produced by Japanese scholars that are otherwise rarely seen in English-language publications.
Roth's work must surely be commended for its ambition, covering a period spanning from the imperial era to Xi's “new era” (xin shidai). At the same time, he provides a clean and coherent narrative while touching upon several different aspects of China's relations with its neighbours. Roth's concluding remarks also provide nourishing food for thought, especially the first half of the last chapter in which he discusses if and how China's idea of hierarchical order differs from that of other countries. In general, the book is written clearly. However, Roth does not always succeed in providing enough depth and nuance. Several passages would have benefitted from more elaboration. Ideas, and their influence on human actions, are a notoriously difficult subject to study. It would have been useful, for example, to have a more detailed discussion of how and why those ideas that Roth claims guide China's actions were transmitted, weakened, strengthened and, especially, used selectively at different moments in history. At the end of the book, one cannot but wonder whether Roth thinks that Chinese policymakers will be forever doomed to think about the world within the parameters of the “imperial orthodoxy.” I find this proposition difficult to believe. It is also unclear who are the holders of those ideas, whether it is the entire Chinese society or only the elites, or whether this is a distinction that even matters.
Moreover, the fact that similar actions can originate from different ideas is something that should have been addressed. For example, many scholars such as Courtney Fung and Shogo Suzuki have emphasized the role of status in shaping China's actions. Yet, they have not traced the origin of Beijing's status-seeking behaviour to its imperial past. The various types of partnerships that China has established with neighbouring and faraway countries since the 1990s are another case in point. Yes, that network somehow might seem to be the product of the “imperial orthodoxy” described by Roth. However, this is far from enough to prove that this actually is the origin of those agreements. In other words, some of the claims made in the book seem plausible but those who are sceptical of such history-focused accounts of Chinese behaviour will not be fully convinced by the argument that is put forward in A Hierarchical Vision of Order.
To conclude, Roth's book is undoubtedly a pleasant and informative read. It will be of interest to both novices of Chinese foreign policy and more seasoned observers. Even those that might not be convinced by the argument in its entirety, will find some of the points made by Roth worth their time.
