ABSTRACT
The national identity definition of who is the national self, “the People,” vis-à-vis the others who do not belong to the nation, is closely tied to the extent to which democratic rights are enjoyed by average citizens. From late Qing to the early Republican period and through the Mao and post-Mao eras, opportunities and good intentions to pursue democracy were stymied by an exclusive interpretation of national identity in service of power struggle. When facing severe domestic challenges, Chinese elites frequently aroused internally exclusionary nationalism for social mobilization and power consolidation, which denied various ethnic, socioeconomic, political, and religious groups of equal rights and popular sovereignty. Additionally, this domestic exclusion in Chinese identity politics was linked to attitudes to foreign others. Especially when vilifying domestic adversaries was either emotionally unappealing or politically inconvenient, Chinese elites would reinforce it with a nationalist crusade against foreign countries to generate a legitimate narrative for securing power. Thus, national identity has exerted a significant impact on both China’s trajectory of democratization and its foreign relations.
