Sovereignty or Interdependency?

Abstract

After more than two decades of reform, China and Russia have developed new hybrid forms of national capitalism and authoritarianism. Besides the domestic socioeconomic and political challenges, both countries have international ambitions. To be sure, China and Russia share a common denominator in the realm of foreign policy: to manage and, if possible, decrease the impact of US influence upon international affairs. But, putting this commonality aside, the two countries have different goals and conditions, and have adopted different foreign policy strategies to deal with the post-Cold War world order. Russia, seeing its current international standing in decline and being reduced to a mere energy supplier to the world market, is seeking to replay the end of the Cold War and to revive its great power ambitions. China has moved away from its former heavy reliance on bilateral relationships to working within numerous multilateral frameworks. Though this development has been welcomed in the international community, China’s more assertive behaviour in the maritime sphere has raised concerns about the implications for regional stability of China’s growing power. At the same time, China has not given up on its insistence on respect for sovereignty, nor has China’s leadership officially been swayed from the argument that, as a developing country, it must focus on raising the living standards of its own people before taking on more international responsibility.