Chinese Nationalism and the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Dispute in the Xi Jinping Er

Abstract

Currently, China has adopted a more assertive and confident foreign policy regarding territorial issues, which many scholars interpret as a response to the intensifying nationalism. This article seeks to examine the role of Chinese nationalism and its impact on the policymaking and behavior of the government under Xi Jinping’s leadership, specifically in the case of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute. The author applies a neoclassical realist framework that conceptualizes nationalism as a domestic-level variable to analyze China’s foreign policy choices across different contexts. The findings reveal that nationalist pressures have played a significant role in pushing China toward a more assertive stance on the Diaoyu Islands dispute. However, the influence of nationalism remains constrained by structural factors and domestic contexts. As a result, the Xi administration has not pursued an unrestrained nationalist policy, but rather has sought to strike a balance between responding to domestic nationalist sentiments and managing external relations. This article thus provides an analytical framework for systematically understanding the dynamics of interaction between nationalism and international relations.