Evil Monsters and Machines : A Techno-Orientalist Perspective on Threat Perception in the United Kingdom

Abstract: This thesis looks at the construction of China as a security threat in the United Kingdom, through the theoretical lens of techno-Orientalism. The main argument is that techno-Orientalist ideas influence the Western perception of China as a security threat, which leads to the creation of certain fears regarding China which affects the identity creation of both the United Kingdom and China. Techno-Orientalism shows how the West perceives itself as losing its grip on modernity, and thus the future; the East is being perceived as the producers of technology which lead to the opposite of the desired Western liberal humanism. Thus, the East is on its way to take over modernity and turn it into a technological oppressive future. These ideas influence how the United Kingdom perceives China as a security threat, and this is shown through a Foucauldian-inspired discourse analysis of debates in the British Parliament.