The Chinese concept of time: implications for the foreign policy-making

Abstract

Every community and group of people share a set of attitudes, values and beliefs that take the name of culture and that make them think, behave and communicate in a certain way. Culture certainly has an enormous impact on people’s everyday life, but it plays an important role also in policy-making. One of the numerous cultural aspects that can influence one nation leaders’ policy- making is the concept of time, so how people perceive time and how they relate with it. This thesis analyses the Chinese concept of time and its implication on Chinese foreign policy-making. The starting point is the Chinese term used to translate the English word time, that is shi 时; in the Chinese literature, it has always had the sense of timeliness, of doing things at the appropriate time. Taking also into account their distinctive holistic approach, Chinese people always look to the big picture first and only then they analyse the particular situation. This is valid also for time analysis: first of all, they analyse the tendency, the mega-trend of the times and only then they make decisions. But, according to the Chinese harmony principle, their actions must go with the mega-trend, must be in accordance with it. The second and the third chapters of this thesis illustrate how China has implemented this kind of times analysis method for developing its policies and, especially, foreign policies strategies during the twentieth century and up to nowadays. Traced some examples from the Chinese and non-Chinese history, they explain how important is the times assessment’s correctness in order to develop the right strategies and plans.