Coping with Historical Humiliation as a Means Toward Political Legitimacy in China

Despite the broad consensus among China scholars that humiliation plays a significant role in the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the phenomenon remains poorly understood. The study argues that it is not sufficient to claim that the national humiliation of the Chinese people gives them a sense of collective identity and thereby legitimises the CCP's hold on power, because it fails to factor in coping as the required stepping stone between the aversive effects of humiliation and political legitimacy. The article outlines multiple coping mechanisms associated with the Chinese national humiliation narrative to describe a humiliation-coping nexus as the basis for the CCP's legitimacy.