Between Patriotism and Internationalism: The Difficulties of Chinese Foreign Policy Ideology

Beijing has intensified its foreign policy efforts and taken significant steps to improve China’s international image by proposing a number of foreign policy concepts. However, these remain largely obscure and unpopular, as they lack internationalist content. Beijing’s development of an internationalist foreign policy ideology is blocked by the national-patriotic nature of its domestic ideology, which was formulated in answer to an array of internal ideological-political challenges.