Abstract
Many China analysts believe Beijing relies on nationalism to shore up its legitimacy of rule and its recent assertiveness, especially in salient territorial issues, is increasingly defined by such nationalism. However, based on a critical review of the existing studies, this article doubts the validity of this nationalism-foreign-assertiveness nexus because most questions that are important and necessary to elucidate the causal mechanisms remain largely unanswered, therefore making this popular narrative biased and somewhat flawed. This article addresses four questions as follows: what Chinese nationalism is, how ‘rising’ nationalism is in China, Beijing’s attitudes towards nationalism, and its foreign policy implications. This article concludes that nationalism’s foreign policy effects may be more moderate than most have assumed, and thus calls for intellectuals’ efforts to move beyond the stereotyped image and make further rigorous analysis.