Scottish Centre for China Research

When: Wednesday 25 February 2026 at 4:10pm–5.30pm 

Where: 908 Meeting Room, 42 Bute Gardens, University of Glasgow (and online with registration here). 

 

Abstract: 

Was China historically an empire? While Western historiography routinely categorizes dynastic China—especially the Qing—as an empire, recent official Chinese discourse has increasingly rejected this label. This lecture examines not only the historical validity of the term “empire” in relation to China, but also the political significance of its contemporary denial.

The talk proceeds in three steps. First, it revisits conceptual debates on “empire” in both Western social science and Chinese intellectual history, highlighting the distinction between expansive, difference-based imperial rule and centralized bureaucratic state-building. It argues that although the Qing dynasty clearly exhibited imperial characteristics, earlier Han-led dynasties more closely resembled centralized unitary states than classical empires.

Second, the lecture situates the late Qing and Republican debates over “what China is” within broader global patterns of imperial transformation. Competing visions—racial nationalism, civic nationalism, and imperial federalism—reflected unresolved tensions between a Qin-Han centralized model and a Yuan-Qing pluralistic imperial model.

Finally, it examines the Chinese Communist Party’s ethnic policy, tracing its Soviet-influenced imperial logic and its subsequent “de-imperialization” following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The contemporary assertion that “China is not an empire” is thus interpreted not as a semantic correction but as a strategic redefinition of national identity—favoring a unitary, assimilationist state model over a pluralistic imperial legacy

Short Bio: 

Dr. Fei Zheng is Lecturer in International Politics at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. His research focuses on comparative politics, the comparative history of modern empires, and ethnic politics. He has held visiting research positions at the University of Edinburgh and Marquette University. Dr. Zheng is the author of several books on empire and state-building, including The Craft of Empire, and writes regularly on international politics and historical sociology.