Although the Foreword, by He Beilin, groups The China That Can Say No with The Japan That Can Say No and The Asia That Can Say No, it is probably just as appropriate to locate The China That Can Say No as standing in a literary genre concerned with Chinese national identity that stretches from the May Fourth Movement to River Elegy.
儘管在由何蓓琳署名的前言裡，將本書與《日本可以說不》《亞洲可以說不》相提並論，但中國《說不》的文學類型，或許更適合歸類於從五四運動到《河殤》，所延伸出來的一種對國家定位的關切。