Modelling Chinese Youth Support for Military Intervention in the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands: Beyond Nationalism and Militarism

Kingsley Edney, Wang Bo, Graeme Alan Marshall Davies

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Research on public opinion and foreign policy in China has focused on
nationalism as the driver behind public support for the use of force.
However, nationalism is just one of many potentially significant factors
that can increase support for military deployments. In this article we
build a mediation model to test the relative effects of psychological
predispositions, foreign policy attitudes, perceptions of the opposing
state and calculations about the likely outcome of the conflict on support
for China sending naval forces to the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands.
We find that dislike of the Japanese government and a belief that China
would be victorious in a conflict with Japan are both powerful predictors
of support for the use of force. Nationalism and militarism directly
increase support but also indirectly increase it via different pathways.
Nationalists are more confident in a Chinese victory while militarists have
a stronger dislike of the Japanese government.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages27
JournalJournal of Conflict Resolution
Early online date4 Dec 2022
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 4 Dec 2022

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© The Author(s) 2022

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