Justifying economic coercion

The discourse of victimhood in China’s unilateral sanctions policy

Bibliographic Data

ID12207136
AuthorsEnrico V Gloria (0000-0002-5830-378X, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume36
Issue3
Pages521-551
Publication date2021-09-27
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Pacific Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0951-2748 • E-ISSN: 1470-1332
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09512748.2021.1980605
OpenAlexW3204709980
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited40

China remains reluctant in claiming unilateral economic sanctions as a valid form of statecraft. China has consistently withheld official acknowledgment of its use of unilateral sanctions despite using them in different disputes. This has resulted to observations arguing that China is increasingly approaching the use of sanctions in a stealthier, therefore, more aggressive manner. It begs to ask, how does China’s reluctant attitude towards its use of unilateral economic sanctions fit into China’s overall foreign policy logic? More specifically, how does China’s victimhood discourse justify unilateral sanctions and at the same time, promote a positive identity of itself in light of coercion? This paper argues that China’s consistent vague acknowledgment and denial in claiming a direct hand on unilateral sanctions comes from its broad foreign policy objective of maintaining a positive identity through its discourse of victimhood. To uncover this understanding, this paper analyzes China’s official positions in six bilateral disputes where China has resorted to unilateral sanctions. While existing observations only stop at ‘plausible deniability’ as primary explanation for China’s vague rhetoric, analyzing China’s predication strategies provides a necessary nuancing in terms of how this peculiar behavior remains consistent with China’s overall foreign policy logic

China · Coercion (linguistics · Denial · Economic sanctions · Foreign policy · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Sanctions · Sociology · Economic Sanctions and International Relations · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Nuclear Issues and Defense · Psychology

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