Monopolizing Chineseness: Applying the Concept of Zhengtong (正統) in Cross-Strait Relations

The development of Chinese International Relations Theory (Chinese irt) failed to produce a peaceful solution for the cross-Strait conflict because it has not critically examined its conceptual premises, including zhengtong, the Chinese concept that conveys the legitimate political order in imperial China: spatially a unity, temporally the succession of the previous unity, and politically the “authentic” succession. As an essential concept for the legitimacy of imperial China that the roc and the prc succeeded, zhengtong has played a crucial role in justifying wars of unification. The paper argues that zhengtong is part of the indispensable conceptual foundation of the cross-Strait conflict. It does so by examining the theory of legitimate imperial succession permitted by zhengtong that necessitates territorial Grand-Unity, i.e. the legitimacy based on the unification of the territory of the succeeded empire, and by reinterpreting the legitimation of the prc and the roc based on the continuity between imperial and modern China. Such continuity is based on the construct of a Chinese nation, resulting in the monopolization of Chineseness by the contenders of zhengtong, i.e., the prc and the roc, unable to produce a peaceful resolution.