China's political discourse towards the 21st century: Victimhood, identity, and political power

Political discourse is critical to the legitimisation of China's ruling elite and critically informs its formulation and execution of political action. This study explores the theme of victimhood in China's contemporary political discourse. The constructed nature of political discourse—the ‘official story’ in Benedict Anderson's phrase—draws upon a range of supporting sources. Of central importance is the role of history and one of its key features is the portrayal of China as victim. This offers a distinctive pole of identificatory attachment for the construction of a modernist reading of national Chinese political identity. The study conducts discourse analyses of three primary texts. It is concluded that objectified discursive power remains an influential factor in Chinese politics. “Without legitimacy, words are invalid; invalid words lead man to nowhere” (Mingbuzheng zhe yanbushun; yanbushun zhe shibucheng)—Confucius This paper was presented at the 10th Anniversary Conference of the American Association of Chinese Studies, Washington D.C., 16–17 April 1999. The authors would like to thank their panel discussants, Professor Peter Li and Dr. Gary Rawnsley, for their comments and suggestions on this paper.