The concept of Tianxia and its use policy between "East" and "West": Contemporary forms of Orientalism and of political Westernism

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the contemporary developments of the classic Chinese concept of Tianxia (“All under Heavens”) in the field of International Relations (IR) made both by
Chinese PRC scholars since the middle of the 1990’s and more recently by North American scholars in the last five years. The writings of Zhao Tingyang and Salvatore Babones about Tianxia and
IR will be analyzed from the perspective of Orientalism and Occidentalism.