L’apporto di Zhao Huasheng alla dottrina cinese delle relazioni internazionali: uno studio preliminare

After briefly summarising China’s development of distinct theoretical approaches – understood as normative rather than speculative – in the field of International Relations, as a result of the increasing adoption of a more Sinocentric perspective in IR, this paper will analyse Zhao Huasheng’s contribution to these academic efforts in China, with a particular focus on his interpretation of the current international structure. Zhao, retired professor and former director of the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies at Fudan University, has developed some noteworthy theories in an attempt to legitimise the PRC’s role in the contemporary international arena. The choice of analysing his studies derives both from the little notoriety his research has gathered in the Western academia and from the lack of translation into any Western language of many of his publications. His work stands out for the use of Sino-Russian dynamics as a key to understanding the current global system and for highlighting their potential to counter American hegemony. Zhao seeks to build a theory capable of converging Moscow’s and Beijing’s foreign policy doctrines into a unified vi sion through the strategic use of the multipolarity argument, aiming to strengthen the China-Russia partnership. At the same time, he attempts to present an analysis of the current international structure as simultaneously bipolar and multipolar, in order to balance the power of the US and the PRC, without discharging Russia. Despite his efforts to develop a suitable theory to validate China’s status in the global community, his attempts appear mostly rhetorical and highly unattainable.