Book Launch: Chinese Assertiveness, Ideational Mobilization, and the Rise of Xi Jinping – Achieving Something
INVITATION
IN-PERSON EVENT
BOOK LAUNCH
Chinese Assertiveness, Ideational Mobilization, and the Rise of Xi Jinping
Achieving Something
Date: Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Time: 15:00 – 16:30 CET
Venue: EIAS, Rue de la Loi 26, B-1040 Brussels
The European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) has the pleasure of cordially inviting you to the Book Launch of “Chinese Assertiveness, Ideational Mobilization, and the Rise of Xi Jinping – Achieving Something“, written by Friso Stevens, Nonresident Senior Fellow at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. The event will be held on Tuesday, 20 May 2025 from 15:00 to 16:30 at the European Institute for Asian Studies, Rue de la Loi 26, 10th floor, B-1040 Brussels, Belgium.
The Book
Rather than viewing Xi Jinping as the sole architect of China’s more forceful foreign policy, the book Friso Stevens will present examines the deeper historical, domestic, and leadership drivers behind China’s repositioning, arguing that Xi Jinping had a broad mandate from the Party establishment when he was elevated in 2007.
In the years of global turmoil that followed the 2008 global financial crisis, China’s foreign policy of the late Hu Jintao years came to be viewed in Western discourse as increasingly “assertive.” Displaying a certain cognitive dissonance, China, however, vehemently rejects this viewpoint. Especially after Xi Jinping rose to power in 2012, it is clear that China has abandoned its long-held foreign policy doctrine of “keeping a low profile.” Analyzing how language has been produced and reproduced over time, this book explains the shift to a more assertive China by examining the intervening ideas about China’s desired place in East Asia’s regional order. The Chinese Communist Party propaganda offers compelling evidence that there is much greater continuity between the Hu and Xi eras than is exhibited in the current literature. Moreover, the book traces the deeper ideational sources of Chinese assertiveness back to the New Left movement and the Patriotic Education Campaign of the 1990s. Agency for the turn in the late 2000s and the selection of the compromise candidate Xi is attributed to the choices past leaders made, with some Party elders “ruling from behind the curtain.”
More information on the book can be found on the Routledge webpage.
The Author
Friso Stevens is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. Previously, he completed postdoctoral fellowships at the European University Institute and the University of Helsinki. While writing his doctoral dissertation at Leiden University, Friso taught at the Vrije Universiteit, his alma mater in Amsterdam. Educated as a lawyer and political scientist, he also studied at Northwestern University, Peking University, and King’s College London. His work has been published in The Pacific Review, Asian Security, Asian Affairs, and popular outlets such as ChinaFile, The Diplomat, and East Asia Forum.
Programme
14:30 – 15:00 Registration and Welcome Refreshments
15:00 – 15:10 Opening Remarks by the Chair
- Lin Goethals, Director, EIAS
15:10 – 15:40 Presentation of the Book
- Dr Friso Stevens, Nonresident Senior Fellow at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies
15:40 – 16:30 Interactive Q&A Session with the Audience
16:30 End of the Event
Critics’ Reviews
“A lively, wide ranging and learned account which digs below the surface to answer questions about the tone and nature of politics in China today. Rejecting conventional thinking and interpretations, Friso Stevens in this timely account looks at the deeper patterns of continuity between the era before Xi Jinping, and the kind of politics practised after he came to power. Looking at ideas and how they relate to patterns of language and practice, this book calls upon a rich selection of scholarly material in both Chinese and English, and offers valuable new insights, delivered with verve, conviction and passion.”
Kerry Brown, Professor of Chinese Studies, King’s College London, UK
“[this book] provides a fresh and compelling explanation for China’s shift to a more assertive foreign policy beginning in 2009-2010 with the onset of the global financial crisis. Focusing on ideational drivers and leadership politics, Friso Stevens analyzes the development of a more nationalistic environment in China and the return of conservative political elites to the highest echelons of power that fostered Xi Jinping’s elevation to power. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the roots and reasons for China’s abandonment of Deng Xiaoping’s dictum to ‘keep a low profile’ that was the guiding principle of Chinese foreign policy since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.”
Bonnie Glaser, Managing Director of the Indo-Pacific Program, German Marshall Fund
“Friso Stevens’ book offers a penetrating analysis of China’s shift toward assertiveness in its foreign policy, particularly under Xi Jinping’s leadership. Using an innovative neoclassical realist framework, Stevens argues that China’s assertiveness is not a recent phenomenon but is deeply rooted in historical, ideational, and leadership dynamics. The book critiques oversimplified Western narratives while shedding light on the domestic and international implications of China’s ideological evolution. This is an essential read for scholars, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand the complexities of Chinese politics and foreign policy.”
Xiaoyu Pu, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Nevada, Reno, USA
Photo Credits: Routledge