The Association of Chinese Political Studies (ACPS) organized and sponsored a related group panel for the 2011 American Political Science Association (APSA) annual meeting held in Seattle in early September.
The ACPS APSA related group panel, entitled “Chinese Traditions in International Relations,” provided an opportunity to satiate the rising interest abroad and in China in Chinese traditional concepts and practices in international relations. Among other themes, the panel tackled issues such as “What were representative Chinese traditional concepts and practices of international relations?” “What were the philosophical bases for these Chinese traditions?” “How unique were Chinese concepts and practices in Asia and the world?” “How did Chinese traditional concepts guide Chinese traditional practices?” “Is it possible at all to build a distinct Chinese approach of international relations based on its traditional concepts?”
The panel had three paper presentations: (1) Baldwin Bon-Wah Wong (London School of Economics), “A Confucian Theory of Justice;” (2) Shaojin Chai (University of Notre Dame), “Neo-Confucian Cosmopolitanism and Chinese Perception of World Order: A Study of Wang Yangming’s virtue Politics and Cultural Pluralism;” and (3) Fei-Ling Wang (Georgia Institute of Technology): “Between Tianxia and Westphalia: China Searches for Its Position in the World.” Ja Ian Chong (National University of Singapore) served as panel chair while Edward Friedman (University of Wisconsin, Madison) served as the discussant. The panel was well attended, with a lively Q & A session and discussion continuing even after the formal conclusion of the panel.