China's foreign policy

Realpolitik or something new

Bibliographic Data

ID13106482
AuthorsTung Chieh Tsai (National Chung Hsing University), Alexis Littlefield
Year2011
Volume10
Issue1
Pages1-13
Publication date2011-04-30
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Eastern Asia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2383-9449 • E-ISSN: 2383-9449
PublisherWorld Association for Triple helix and Future strategy studies (PUBLISHER • KR)
DOI10.17477/jcea.2011.10.1.001
OpenAlexW2404084961
LanguageEN
References cited12

Acutely alarmed by its diminishing international clout in the late 2oth century, China embarked on economic reforms that not only saved the economy and its political elites, but also gave the state more confidence and power to meliorate its international position.Moreover, because of its geographic position and traditional regional influence, any changes in China's foreign policy would lead to reactions among East Asian countries.In this review of China's foreign policy, we focus on how it has changed over time while addressing four questions: Is the guiding principle of China's foreign policy, idealism, Realpolitik or something else?Is China's primary goal in the new millennium purely economic development or regional hegemony?Will increasing regional influence of a rising China increase the likelihood of war or consolidate peace?Does China practice its own unique brand of foreign policy?Finally, we discuss China's evolving foreign policy and its future trajectory. The origins of Chinese foreign policyFollowing a series of mid-nineteenth century external and internal conflicts, including foreign wars in the late Ching dynasty, the revolutionary war in 1910s, the civil war among warlords in 1920s, the Sino-Japan war in 1937-45, and the civil war between Communist and Nationalist in 1945-49, China unhappily found itself at the periphery of the global system.Nonetheless, after half a century of relative peace and economic reform policies enacted in 1978, China has begun to re-build its international relations.Mao Ze-dong declared the Chinese people had finally "stood up" in the world and a "new China" had been built in 1949.Despite this declaration of a "new China" in 1949, there are historical legacies embedded in modern China's foreign relations.These include preserving the conception of Chinese "centrality" in the world.However, rather

China · Foreign policy · Political science · Politics · Realpolitik · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law

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