Identity, Role Conception, and Status Dilemma: A Socio-Psychological Account of China-U.S. Relations

This article examines the status politics in Chinese foreign policy and its implications on China-U.S. relations. The analysis of status recognition and the role it plays in Chinese diplomacy reveals the motivating factors behind China’s quest for respect in the international arena and the centrality of national identity in China’s status aspiration. Viewed from the socio-psychological perspective, China’s tenacious struggle to gain a prominent international status is a social action aimed at forging its identity security, whereby the Chinese “self” will interact on equal terms with the foreign “other.” Based on the argument, this paper compares Chinese and American role conceptions and dissects the status dilemma between the two powers by exploring the dynamics of disrespect in their status relations. The two nations’ distinctive self-role conceptions and their role expectations of the interacting parties have led to a widening gap between China’s international status that entitles it to equal treatment and the one accorded by the United States. The disquieting condition of this status dissonance has motivated Beijing to disrupt the asymmetric hierarchy wherein it used to exhibit deference to Washington. The effort of the established hegemon in upending the defiance of the status contestant has exacerbated the status dilemma, which has given rise to the current China-U.S. malaise.