ACABADOS DE LA CONSTRUCCIÓN.

There is also a more normative dimension to China’s African policies alongside the typical political and economic dimensions to it as previously depicted in the established literature on China in Africa. Alongside the role of symbolic capital in Chinese foreign policy, the more normative aspects of China’s approach to Africa illustrates how the perceptions of these policies are created by the Chinese and American narratives, particularly the pursuit of soft power initiatives by Beijing as the issues over the perception of China’s image in the continent and the wider world and highlighting the more normative aspect of China’s African policies

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(Wang, 2008, pg. 258). This serves as the primary mechanism for the spread of the Chinese constructs beyond their original context

While the policy of soft power has often been interpreted as Beijing’s attempt to win African hearts and minds to further China’s economic objectives, it also has a normative significance for Beijing. One of the main criticisms of the policy of cultural soft power is that these policies are not so much soft power, but rather normative power (Lagadec, 2012, pg. 163). This is due to these policies being aimed at combatting what Beijing perceives to be the negative image of China, which is blamed for the limitations in the overall effectiveness of achieving Chinese foreign policy goals (Shambaugh, 2015, pg. 99). It is this battle for China’s global image that is symbolised by the competing images of China’s African policies since these are the result of two normative systems that seek to spread themselves beyond the context of their origins as being reflective of two systems that seek to spread themselves beyond the context of their creation.

Alongside the promotion of China’s traditional culture, these policies have often been claimed to be promoting Chinese norms as much as they promote Chinese culture (Nye, 2012, pg. 151). This is related to combatting the perceived negative image of China to enhance China’s ability to achieve foreign policy goals. It is possible to see the discourse on Chinese engagement in Africa as being one of the many fronts of the battle for China’s identity waged by the American and Chinese discourse, rendering Beijing’s soft power initiatives as being more about the pursuit of normative rather than soft power since these are intended to modify the existing social norms. This is illustrative of the more normative considerations behind China’s African policies as the wider issues that it symbolises.

In keeping with the depictions of Chinese cultural soft power initiatives as an expression of normative power, it would also appear that the purpose of the discourses themselves are to spread a set of norms beyond the context within which they were created. This appears to be in line with the replicating structures epitomised by Bourdieu’s concept of the habitus, with the educational institutions and the future generations raised to replicate this system being replaced by normative role models and nations respectively, as China and the American world seek to replicate their normative systems on a global scale. This is the wider issue that the competing knowledge on China in Africa serves as a representative of.

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The role of these norms that codifies the power relations between China and much of the American world. In line with the theories of Bourdieu, the American and Chinese discourses seek to spread their norms on a wider scale to gain further legitimacy as promoting a role model for other states to follow. This has often been couched in terms such as universal values in the American discourse or in the case of the Chinese discourse an alternative to these values. In the case of the latter, this can be interpreted as an example of the more normative dimensions of Chinese foreign policy as China seeks to challenge the dominance of the American narrative.

The spread of Chinese norms as the more normative aspects of Chinese foreign policy, can be seen in the spread of the Chinese model of economic development. This has often been interpreted as the promotion of economic development along with political authoritarianism, the latter of which appears to conflict with the established norms regarding development (Cooper Ramo, 2004, pg. 63). It is this idea of development without democracy that illustrates the crux of the challenge that the Chinese discourse poses, since it was commonly assumed that development was impossible without the adoption of democratic values. It is the normative dimensions of China in Africa that reflects the power relations between China and the West, which clash over the spread of their respective norms and systems.

By examining the normative as the symbolic aspects of China’s approach to Africa, it is possible to view the developments and shifts in Chinese foreign policy. This can be seen in the more exceptionalist stance taken by the Chinese narrative, which has manifested itself in the discourse. Such a development can be seen in the example of the China Dream, which is one of the more recent developments in the Chinese discourse as in the Chinese approach (Liu, 2015, pg. 63). This has suggested another path for China to follow, rooted in its imperial past, as opposed to the traditional notion of convergence with the West. By following the normative dimensions of China’s policy in Africa, it is possible to examine the developments in Chinese foreign policy as the changes in China’s identity, both of which appear to have a relationship. In addition, this illustrates the image of China that China seeks to portray to the wider world, which serves as another reflection of how the Chinese system seeks to replicate itself beyond its original context.

It was possible to engage with the norms that shape the discourses on these policies since the structures of experience that influence their creation. In the case of the Chinese discourse, this has seen a shift away from the communist norms that had dominated the Chinese narrative during the twentieth century to a more cultural identity based on concepts from China’s imperial past (Wang, 1999, pg. 24). While this indicates a shift away from the project to turn

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China into a more political actor, it also indicates how the structures of experience that influenced the creation of the Chinese discourse too has changed, which is reflected in the more normative dimensions of Chinese foreign policy since this image is the one that China seeks to promote to the wider world.

The more normative dimension also suggests a change in the Western perception of China. Traditionally, the American or Western discourse on China was shaped by the phenomenon of the Yellow Peril, which was grounded in the European imperial experiences in China during the nineteenth century and the ideological conflict of the Cold War. This approach was largely binary in nature in seeking to differentiate China as the ‘barbaric East’ against the ‘civilised West’ and later as the communist enemy alongside the Soviet Union against the capitalist and democratic American world. Such depictions served to underline the differences between China and the United States (Frayling, 2014, pg. 23). While these binaries continue to persist in the American discourse, most notably in the depiction of an authoritarian China against a democratic West, there has been a shift in the way that China has been perceived, suggesting that China will follow the path of the great powers of the previous century. This has manifested itself in the assumptions that China is under the same pressures as the European powers in Africa to become an imperial power as drawing parallels between the policies of these powers and China (Shinn and Eisenman, 2012, pg. 179).

The centrality of norms to the research issue is raised by how the competing images of China in Africa are an expression of two competing sets of norms. This can be seen in how the established image of these policies have been an expression of democratic norms reacting against the more authoritarian dimensions of Chinese policy while the Chinese image is a creation of Confucian or ‘Asian’ values as outlined by Bell. The latter is also representative of China’s wider challenge, which includes its push back against democratic values and human rights, which has been expressed through the promotion of Chinese norms in the form of the China model and the China Dream. It is the role of norms that raises the necessity to utilise the framework of Foucault’s theories regarding the creation of knowledge to explore the role that norms play in the creation of the competing images of China in Africa and the wider issues they signify, most notably the normative challenge that China poses.

In addition, the theoretical framework and the research issue were linked by their challenge to the established norms and assumptions. In the case of the former, this comes in the form of the wider critique of the dominant, realist assumptions that were perceived to have lost their credibility at the end of the Cold War. This has been expressed through the criticism of power

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being synonymous with hard power as well as the zero- sum assumptions that had once dominated international relations theory. For the latter, it is in how China’s normative foreign policy has challenged the dominance of the established paradigms regarding capitalism and development, as expressed through the China Model and the China Dream. It is these issues that unify both the theoretical framework and the research issue, which further underlines the utility of the selected methodology.