Introduction

This chapter examines how geography has shaped China’s pursuit of great power status and what it means to other countries, especially the US. It argues that geography serves as a social construct for Chinese national identity as well as a security concept for its interest. China’s geographical positioning is undergoing a transformation from imagining the country as a land-based yellow middle kingdom to a maritime blue superpower.

This chapter stresses a spectrum view of tianxia (All under Heaven), a foundational Chinese worldview as well as a spatial-positioning concept. Various political actors offer competing interpretations of tianxia ranging from accommodation to domination. Political geography has shaped this debate—the more China’s physical positioning is highlighted, the more assertive one’s interpretation of China’s global aspiration would become. The Chinese government has been leaning toward an increasingly aggressive execution, interpreting the country’s rapid maritime expansion as a modern shift of tianxia from land to sea. This has caused anxiety among neighbors and confrontation with the US.

This chapter’s analysis proceeds as follows: it starts by introducing tianxia (All under Heaven)—a Chinese philosophical view that imagines an ideal world where a benevolent and powerful leader sitting between Heaven and Earth, ruling his subjects by heeding the mandate of Heaven. Tianxia is both spatial and moral, as it portrays harmonious positionings of all living creatures on the land—people, fauna, and flora.

The chapter then examines how China’s rapid ascendancy has challenged this historical concept. Echoing Salvador Regilme’s chapter on the militarization of the South China Sea (SCS), this chapter points out that China has been aggressively pursuing the goal of becoming a deep blue power. As Beijing seeks to project its influence to the sea, it needs to expand tianxia, a traditionally land-based concept, to justify its vast maritime claim as well. Regilme argues that Xi Jinping’s domestic agenda of boosting nationalism is partly responsible for Beijing’s militant activities in the vast waters of the SCS. Following this proposition but looking through a more long-term and normative lens, this chapter suggests that the conceptual expansion of tianxia serves the Chinese leader’s domestic agenda of rejuvenating Chinese greatness, also known as the “Chinese Dream.” But Xi’s dream has stirred up fear and anxiety among China’s neighbors. It also brings the country on a collision course with America, the region’s hegemon by default.