Rethinking the low profile: The evolving stance of China’s strategic culture

In recent decades, the concept of strategic culture has emerged as the core focus of cultural approach theories to explain a state’s strategic behavior, given that existing theories have failed to convey deviations from the universal principles of rational state behavior. Relying on the conceptual framework of strategic culture, complemented by Barry Buzan’s “revisionist” approach, this article strives to fill the existing gap in the literature by presenting motives and evidence of revisionism in China’s culture-based conduct. By investigating China’s revisionist behavior vis-à-vis its strategic culture, we conclude that both are correlated. China’s territorial claims, its rapid military modernization, the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, and its ambiguous alignment with Russia, emphasize the evolution of China’s strategic culture from a defensive to a more resolute stance.