The resurgence of nationalism in the People's Republic of China since the 1990s: a strategy of the state to revitalize its declining legitimacy

Abstract

Compared to the ultra-nationalism expressed in Mao Zedong’s time, Chinese nationalism relatively subsided in most of the time in the 1980s when the locomotive of marketization had just turned into motion. However, it regained salience again in the early 1990s after the Tiananmen crackdown of the democratic movement in 1989 and the sudden collapse of Soviet communist bloc. Ranging from academic articles to journalist reports, profuse attempts had been made to depict and exemplify this reemergence. In this study, instead of merely portraying the extent of this resurgent current of Chinese nationalism, we would argue that this re-emergent nationalism is an intentional official strategy aiming at propping up the de-legitimized Communist regime whose continuation of power was jeopardized by various legitimacy crises. In our discussion, we would argue that the major triggering factors contributed to the legitimacy crisis were the June 4th Incident and the adverse impacts of developmentalism, with their de-legitimating effects differentiated in extent in the two different period of early and mid-1990s. Also, regarding the weaknesses of the existing literatures, this study would devote diligent effort to construct a mechanism which portrays how nationalism is transformed and mystified into sentiments which are conducive to the legitimation of the Communist government. We would reason that the process of myth-creation is essential and indispensable. Additionally, we would argue that various political speeches, propaganda organs, and the education systems are the requisite socializing agents through which the myth-creation process occurs.