Cross-Civilizational Negotiation Between Western and Chinese Epistemic Perspectives in BRI Research

This chapter argues that the cross-civilizational negotiation between Western and Chinese epistemic perspectives in BRI research is mandatory due to the problematics surfaced in the previous chapter. It introduces some key Chinese IR epistemic perspectives—including Tianxia, Yin-yang, and Mianzhi—that potentially extenuate the shortcomings found in the problematiques. Essentially, it espouses the need to include Chinese IR conceptual apparatus in complementarity to Western IR analysis while rejecting cultural exceptionalism and uncritical acceptance of discourses bearing self-interested agenda.