Abstract: The paper explores discursive power and related concepts (institutional power, normative power, epistemic power) as an important part of contemporary PRC foreign strategy. As Westphalian identity carries certain risks for Beijing, China is actively trying to reconceptualize its identity through the development of epistemic power, its main manifestation being the emergence of the Chinese IR school. China’s two main strategies of interaction with the Western IR theory are (1) transcending its parochiality through inclusion of Chinese concepts and research methods and (2) creating radical alternatives to Western IR theory. At a more fundamental level of theorizing about non-Western IR, the former strategy is broadly aligned with the project of “global IR” and the latter with a decolonial/postcolonial approach to IR. Decolonial hermeneutics allows for revealing the main shortcomings of “global IR” and the underlying epistemic culture, as well as for examining problems that arise from China's accumulation of discursive power. Based on the analysis, we can conclude that there are three potential strategies of the PRC: Westphalian discursivity, Westphalian discursivity with Chinese characteristics, and critical discursivity. The first two strategies can potentially lead China into the trap of discursive power: trying to resist Western discursive aggression through accumulation of discursive power, Beijing begins to internalize power structures and narratives inherent in the Western political model or romanticize alternative systems for the reproduction of power in imperial China, hence reinforcing international suspicions regarding its true intentions and taking a less advantageous strategic position. The paper proposes a number of ways out of this trap (development of cooperation with countries of the global South, interaction with their epistemic cultures, critical rethinking of modern Chinese concepts of international relations).

Abstract: The subject of this research is the Tao political philosophy of the ancient Chinese text of “Tao Te Ching” as a source of Chinese strategy. The author expounds three aspects of the Tao philosophy: administrative (perception of ideal form of government and political legitimacy), military-diplomatic (preferred types of interaction with other actors and stance on war as a political instrument), and geopolitical-geocultural (perception of culture in its place in the world and correlation of cultural mission with beingness of other actors withing the framework of certain world politics configuration). The scientific novelty of this research consists in a complex analysis of the “Tao Te Ching” texts as a potential paradigm of Chinese strategic culture. “Tao Te Ching” preaches noninvolvement as a method of government and criteria of political legitimacy, defensive pacifism and world politics model of global community of smaller states. A conclusion is made on the importance of study of the influence of Tao paradigm upon the strategy of Chinese national movements for solution of the problem of political strategic agency.

Abstract: The subject of the study is the ancient Chinese intellectual game Weiqi as a cultural matrix and analog model of the Chinese geopolitical picture of the world. The use of Weiqi as a tool of political analysis is caused, on the one hand, by a growing influence of China on the international arena and the formation of the Chinese school of international relations; on the other hand, by the current trend towards gamification of social processes. Weiqi is viewed from the framework of  "game geopolitics" - a new direction at the junction of game and policy proposed by the author as a study of strategic culture in space perceived through culture. The study uses a comparative-political method, method of studying specific situations (cases), method of analog model construction. The author correlated the categorical apparatus of the game and geopolitical theory, considered the main strategic and tactical elements of the weiqi game used by the PRC in its foreign policy course. The article identifies the main components of the Weiqi strategy– maximization of the long-term profit, capture and retention of the initiative while avoiding direct confrontation, orientation to multi-purpose moves. The author made projections on the further actions of China on the world stage in terms of the weiqi strategy. The author proposes to use Weiqi as a tool for creating the East Asian security architecture within the China-Japan-Korea Trialog.