Foreign Policy

Abstract

The end of the Cold War at the beginning of the 1990s and the US-China agreement on WTO entry at the end of the 1990s have provided dramatic challenges to China’s foreign policy formulation. The disappearance of US-Soviet superpower rivalry meant that China had to reconfigure its international position without the room for maneuver that had been offered by the Cold War. It also brought the latent antagonisms in the relationship with the USA to the forefront. Combined with the West’s reaction to the military quelling of the student-led demonstrators in 1989, it has brought an uncertainty to the relationship that has continued to this day and will continue to influence relations into the next century. China’s pending entry into the WTO builds on the extraordinary economic integration into the world economy that has taken place since the reforms began and shows China’s leaders’ commitment to being an active member of the world economic community. At the same time, it presents new challenges for the leadership in terms of just how much foreign presence China is willing to tolerate and how destabilizing the foreign presence will be to native industry. This chapter considers first China’s perceptions of global integration and how this may hamper success. Second, the chapter looks at the changing nature of the relationship with the USA and Russia. Third, it reviews China’s position within the region before concluding by looking at the economic dimension of China’s foreign relations.