Abstract
China’s rise as a big power makes one wonder how the Chinese mind works and how it views the world. It is commonly assumed that Chinese cultural norms significantly influence their strategic thinking. However, the Chinese strategic mindset is different from the West. A few works in English have already appeared describing the role of culture on China’s strategic thinking about military and governance affairs. On the basis of literature, Hong Liu, a Chinese expert at the Business School of Manchester University, UK, recently published his book The Chinese Strategic Mind by examining a number of cases across many disciplines. The author explores the interplay between Chinese language, their idiosyncrasies and Chinese cultural traits to see how they influence decision-making processes in different situations. He writes that the reservoir of Chinese strategic thinking is enriched by the contribution made by its thinkers such as Confucius, Lu Shang, Sun Tzu, Zhuge Liang, Liu Bowen, and modern leaders like Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, and other political and business leaders (p.6).