Neoclassical Realism, Nationalism and the Evolution of China’s Revisionism in Maritime East Asia

The ascent of a more ambitious China over the last decade has ignited a vast debate about the role of Chinese nationalism in the formulation of Beijing’s foreign and security policy (FSP). A large number of studies have attempted to unveil direct causation mechanisms between shifts in the nature or intensity of Chinese nationalism and reorientations of Beijing’s FSP. Building on recent developments in the Neoclassical Realist research programme, this article suggests that the causal chain between Chinese nationalism and assertiveness is more complex. Showing that Chinese nationalism has remained largely stable in the post-Cold War era in a state-led form of hypernationalism, it argues that it is the interaction between nationalism and China’s changing power position that has resulted in a transformation of Chinese revisionism, with its consequences being most visible in maritime East Asia.