SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Much of Chiang Kai-shek's 'returning virtue for malice' (yide baoyuan) postwar Japan policy remains to be examined. This thesis mainly shows how the discourse of 'returning virtue for malice' facilitated Japan's diplomatic recognition of the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan during the Cold War era. More conceptually, this study re- conceptualizes foreign policy as discourse-that of moral reciprocity-as it sheds light on the question of recognition as well as the consensual aspect of hegemony. By adopting a genealogical approach, this discourse analysis thus traces the descent and emergence of the 'returning virtue for malice' trope while it examines its discursive effect on Tokyo's recognition of Taipei under American hegemony. After tracing the emergence of Chiang's postwar Japan policy as discourse, this thesis first delves into the rise of 'returning virtue for malice' as it demonstrates how the discursive formation of Tokyo's recognition of Taipei constituted US hegemony in East Asia at the inception of the Cold War. Second, this study then highlights the heyday of 'returning virtue for malice' as it shows how a powerful coalition formed around the discourse in the domain of Japanese politics, thereby reproducing the recognition of Nationalist China as well as consolidating American hegemony at the height of the Cold War. Third, this research sheds light on the decline of 'returning virtue for malice' as it depicts the erosion of the Japanese discourse coalition and US hegemony due to the lack of consent between Tokyo, Taipei, and Washington as the nature of the Cold War dramatically changed in East Asia. In short, the discourse of Chiang Kai-shek's 'returning virtue for malice' postwar Japan policy represented Chiang as the benefactor to whom the Japanese should repay their 'debt of gratitude', thereby making Japan's recognition of the Republic of China on Taiwan possible. In effect, this thesis presents a way of reading bilateral relations as it mainly shows how recognition can be constructed by the political actors who draw on hegemonic practices from the past-such as moral reciprocity-under hegemony.