Abstract
Perhaps the most striking aspect of this dimension of China’s foreign policy is its continuity with the Maoist era. Despite signs of greater flexibility in the conduct of policy and a major change in ideological perspectives, the general pattern of Chinese approaches to the strategic dimensions of international politics has not markedly changed in the 10 years since the early seventies. Notwithstanding the deepening links with the international economy, China’s leaders have continued to perceive international politics within the highly conflictual framework of Mao’s ‘geopolitical thought’ (see Chapter 3). Mao’s theories of revisionism and his ideological criticisms of the Soviet Union may have been jettisoned, but the Soviet Union has continued to be regarded as the most dangerous and expansionist of the superpowers. The discarding of Mao’s ideological objections to the Soviet Union has been caused by domestic changes in China and the rejection of the theoretical considerations which underpinned the Cultural Revolution. It has not been caused by a re-evaluation of the international role of the Soviet Union. Indeed the current analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet Union as an expansionist imperialist power are precisely those which Mao himself advanced in his famous ‘paper tiger’ thesis on the nature of imperialism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes and References
On the question of diplomatic style, see F. S. Northedge, ‘On the Nature of Foreign Policy’, in his (ed.), The Foreign Policies of the Powers (London, Faber & Faber, 1968) pp. 21–3.
Henry Kissinger, Years of Upheaval (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982). See the extracts in Time Magazine 15 March 1982 and The Weekend Australian 27–28 March 1982.
Zhou Enlai, ‘Political Report to the Tenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China’, 24 August 1973, in Peking Review, nos. 35–36 (1973).
For an extended analysis of these themes, see Jonathan D. Pollack, ‘Chinese Global Strategy and Soviet Power’, in Problems of Communism, vol. XXX, no. 1 (January–February 1981) pp. 54–69.
See the Xinhua Newsagency commentary, ‘Is the Soviet Union Declining?’, in Beijing Review, no. 3 (18 January 1982).
For different analyses of the interplay of these factors, see Thomas M. Gottleib, Chinese Foreign Policy Factionalism and the Origins of the Strategic Triangle (RAND Report R-1902-NA 1977);
Greg O’Leary, The Shaping of Chinese Foreign Policy (London, Croom Helm, 1980)
and Kenneth Lieberthal, ‘The Foreign Policy Debate in Peking as seen through Allegorical Articles, 1973–76’, in The China Quarterly no. 71 (September 1977) pp. 528–54.
Reported interview by G. Rowbotham, East is Red October 1971 (York Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding), pp. 6–10, cited by John Gittings, ‘China’s Foreign Policy: Continuity or Change?’, in Journal of Contemporary Asia vol. 2, no. 1.
For its genesis, see Michael B. Yahuda, China’s Role in World Affairs (london, Croom Helm, 1978) chapter 9.
See Harry Harding, Jnr., ‘The Domestic Politics of China’s Global Posture’, in Thomas Fingar (ed.), China’s Quest for Independence: Policy Evolution in the 1970’s (Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, 1980) pp. 99–102.
For further elaboration see Michael B. Yahuda, ‘Chinese Foreign Policy After the Victories in Indo-China’, The World Today, July 1975, pp. 293–5.
Huang Xiang, ‘Western Economy in the 1980’s’, in Beijing Review, no 17 and no. 18 (27 April and 4 May 1981).
For the Berlinguer visit see ‘Chronicle and Documentation’, in China Quarterly no. 83 (September 1980) pp. 636–7.
These figures are largely drawn from the statistical tables presented in Appendix 4 of Rudiger Machetzki, ‘China-EC: Economic Developments in Perspective’, in Kuang-Sheng Liao, Modernization and Diplomacy of China (The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1981), pp. 97–106.
See Michael B. Yahuda, ‘Chairman Hua’s Grand European Tour’, in World Today, December 1979.
See the analysis of Roderick MacFarquhar, The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, Part I: Contradictions Among the People (Oxford University Press, 1974).
See article by Edwina Moreton, ‘The Triangle in Eastern Europe’, in Gerald Segal (ed.), The China Factor (London, Croom Helm, 1982) pp. 126–51.
Jonathan D. Pollack, ‘China’s Potential as a World Power’, in International Journal, vol. XXXV, no. 3 (Summer 1980) p. 581.
Ren Guping, ‘Repulse the Wolf at the Gate, Guard Against the Tiger at the Back Door’, People’s Daily, 29 July 1975 in Peking Review, 8 August 1975.
Hsu Hsiang-chin (Xu Xiangjian), ‘Heighten Our Vigilance and Get Prepared to Fight a War’, in Red Flag, 1 August 1978 in Peking Review, no. 32 (11 August 1978).
Joseph Camilleri, Chinese Foreign Policy: The Maoist Era and its Aftermath (Oxford, Martin Robertson & Co., 1980), p. 192.
See Frank S. H. Hsiao and Lawrence R. Sullivan, ‘The Politics of Reunification: Beijing’s Initiative on Taiwan’, in Asian Survey, vol. XX, no. 8 (1980).
For a discussion of Soviet policy divergences on the Chinese factor and détente see Gerald Segal, ‘The Soviet Union and the Great Power Triangle’, in his (ed.) The China Factor (London, Groom Helm, 1982) pp. 64–7 and 68.
This was implied in the book by the Soviet-based journalist, Victor Louis, The Coming Decline of the Chinese Empire (New York, Times Books, 1980).
For examples of this see Wolf Mendl, Issues in Japan’s China Policy (London, Macmillan, 1978), especially pp. 44–52 and 99–101.
See Wolf Mendl, ‘China’s Challenge to Japan’, in World Today July 1979, pp. 278–86.
See Wang Gungwu, ‘Early Ming Relations with Southeast Asia: A Background Essay,’ in J. K. Fairbank (ed.), The Chinese World Order (Harvard University Press, 1967). See especially pp. 48–9 and 55.
Edgar Snow, Red Star Over China (London, Pelican; new and enlarged edition, 1972) p. 505
Dennis Duncanson, ‘China’s Vietnam War: New and Old Strategic Imperatives’, in World Today, June 1979.
For an argument that Sino-Vietnamese relations did indeed deteriorate without careful control by either side, see Lucian W. Pye, ‘The China Factor in Southeast Asia’, in Richard H. Solomon (ed.), The China Factor (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, A Spectrum Book, 1981), pp. 226–42.
See Gareth Porter, ‘The Sino-Vietnamese Conflict in Southeast Asia’, in Current History, vol. XLV (December 1978).
In conversation with the former British Prime Minister Edward Heath in ‘Chronicle and Documentation’, in China Quarterly no. 64 (December 1975) p. 813.
See Hoang Van Hoan, ‘Distortion of Facts About Militant Friendship Between Vietnam and China is Impermissible’ in People’s Daily 27 November 1979 in Beijing Review No. 49 (7 December 1979) p. 17.
Michael Leifer, ‘Post Mortem on the Third Indochina War’, in The World Today, June 1979, p. 249.
For an excellent account see Harlan W. Jencks, ‘China’s “Punitive” War on Vietnam: A Military Assessment’, in Asian Survey, vol. XIX, no. 8 (August 1979).
Copyright information
© 1983 Michael Yahuda
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Yahuda, M. (1983). Strategic and International Politics Since Mao. In: Towards the End of Isolationism: China’s Foreign Policy after Mao. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17149-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17149-1_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-27529-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-17149-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)