中国对外关系中的义利逻辑

The Logic of Yi and Li in China’s Foreign Policy

中国外交具有比较明显的人际关系和人际情感色彩,中国与他国的双边关系常常呈现较大起伏,并伴随有显著的情感或情绪性变化,这种现象难以用现有的西方国际关系理论去理解和解释。作者借鉴中国人处理日常人际关系的经验智慧,结合理性主义和文化心理学两种范式,提出了分析中国对外关系与行为的义利逻辑。中国的对外关系与行为通常是在追求带有情感色彩的长期关系互惠(义)与短期明确利益或理性国家利益(利)之间相平衡的结果。这种平衡的关键在于义利冲突的程度,如是否损害主权、安全等核心国家利益以及持续损害经济与社会发展等其他重要利益。对20世纪50—60年代的中印关系和20世纪90年代后期至今的中菲关系两个案例的考察初步验证了这一推论。揭示中国对外关系中的义利逻辑,有助于更好地把握中国对外关系实践的基本思维和行为模式以及贯彻正确义利观,也为发展具有中国特色的国际关系和外交理论提供了有益启示。

China’s bilateral relations with other countries is characterized by obvious interpersonal relations and sentimentalism. As a consequence, China’s relationship with them often experiences dramatic ups and downs,with a considerable bearing of emotions on it. Unfortunately,the existing international theories,which are mostly embedded in defining the behavior of the unit only via structure and capabilities,provide little or no space to explain the behavioral pattern of the units driven by emotions.Drawing on the traditional Chinese wisdom in managing interpersonal relations,this paper proposes the logic of Yi and Li to explain China’s foreign relations by integrating the principle of rationalism and culture psychology. It argues that China’s foreign policy behaviors are the result of balancing long term mutual benefits and short term national interests,and this balance depends on the extent to which these two factors contradict each other,especially whether that involves damage to China’s core national interests such as sovereignty and security,or other important interests. The theory is supported by the case of China-India relations in the 1950s and 1960s and the case of the relations between China and the Philippines in the late 1990s. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the basic patterns and characteristics of China’s foreign behaviors,and provides an alternative understanding of justice and interests with Chinese concepts Yi and Li,thus helpful for developing a Chinese School of IR theory.