Page 160 - 《国际安全研究》2022年第4期

Journal of International Security Studies

32 Identity and Social Existence: The Quest for China’s Ontological

Security and Its Adaptation
XING Ruilei and ZHOU Haokun

[Abstract] Since the beginning of the 21st century, national and international security have
faced new types of challenges arising from issues such as multiple identities, transnational
communication networks, and collective emotion/affect in the confrontation between
globalization and anti-globalization. This paper intends to clarify the theoretical
significance of identities and collective emotion/affect in domestic and international
security studies and distill the generative logic and analytical framework for national
ontological security. In the era of globalization, multiple identity crises might lead to
ontological insecurity. To maintain “social existence”, states may activate
emotional/affective self-protection mechanisms and behave irrationally out of deep
anxiety. This kind of “irrational behavior” may give rise to interstate conflict and
confrontation. The search for national ontological security depends on the balanced
development of two pathways, namely the continuity of states’ autobiographical narratives
and the coordination mechanism of the “self-other” trust relationship. After discussions
about the historical process of China’s quest for national ontological security, this paper
argues that the autobiographical narrative of “What is China?” is shifting from an “inward-
looking” national subjectivity to an “outward-looking” “international agency” in a period
that witnesses dramatic changes unseen in a century. The transformation of China’s
national identity and the obtainment of national ontological security in the new era depend,
on the one hand, on the successful construction of a domestically and internationally
acknowledged new narrative system featuring China as a responsible major country, and
on the other hand, on the reconstruction of the “coopetitive” and “peace-cooperative” trust
relationship between China and the international community, particularly the Western
major countries. The result of this adaptation is not only a prerequisite for positive “self-
other” interactions but also a key determinant of China’s national security and
international security.
[Keywords] national ontological security, state identity, collective emotion/affect,
autobiographical narrative, “self-other” trust relationship
[Authors] XING Ruilei, Associate Professor, School of Political Science and Public
Administration, Wuhan University; ZHOU Haokun, M.A. Student, School of Political
Science and Public Administration, Wuhan University (Wuhan, 430072).

65 Digital Technology Competition and East Asian Security Order
SUN Xuefeng
[Abstract] The first two decades of the 21st century has witnessed in East Asia the
emergence of a security order characterized by hedging. Specifically, heightened tensions
in China-US strategic competition have not led to an arms race and bloc confrontation.
Other East Asian countries, meanwhile, manage to maintain a balance rather than