<p>Why do threat-based identity dichotomies persist in international politics, even as observable behaviour shifts in ways that might otherwise challenge those framings? This article addresses this puzzle through the case of China’s rise, arguing that efforts to project a peaceful identity paradoxically reinforce the threat perceptions they seek to counter. It introduces the concept of a self-categorisation recursive loop: a process in which peaceful identity performances respond to and stabilise external negative categorisations. Drawing on Social Categorisation Theory and Self-Categorisation Theory, the article identifies four mechanisms – comparative fit, normative fit, mirroring, and entitativity – that reproduce the logic of threat. The argument is illustrated through a multimodal visual communication analysis of three Chinese state-produced documentaries broadcast during the COVID-19 pandemic, a moment of heightened scrutiny over China’s capacity to manage crisis, order, and responsibility. The article contributes to International Relations by theorising how intersubjective relations are stabilised through cognitive and performative micro-processes and proposes that recursive self-categorisation explains persisting threat-based dichotomies of rising or marginalised powers<i>.</i></p>