This cogent but comprehensive book examines the international relations of the People’s Republic of China since its founding in 1949. Noted scholar Robert G. Sutter provides a balanced assessment of the country’s recent successes and advances as well as the important legacies and constraints that hamper it, especially in nearby Asia—long the focus of China’s foreign policy attention. Sutter demonstrates how Beijing has carefully created an image of a China that follows consistent policies based on morally correct principles, but its record shows repeated episodes of sometime surprising change and frequent use of violence, intimidation, and coercion. China’s leaders, he argues, still fail to manage the desire for productive foreign relations with their aspirations to build Chinese security and sovereignty interests. Image-building efforts condition Chinese public and elite opinion to be extraordinarily sensitive, self-righteous, and often alarmist in dealing with the many disputes China has with its Asian neighbors and the United States. Advances the PRC has made in other parts of the world focus mainly on commercial interests, limiting its actual impact on world affairs. Sutter shows readers how to use China’s rise in nearby Asia as a reliable barometer of how important and effective it actually will become internationally.

2011 Updated Reprint. Updated Annually. China Foreign Policy and Government Guide

In an act of totally unnecessary and wanton destruction, British forces in China during the Second Opium War (1856-1860) looted and destroyed much of the Old Imperial Summer Palace (Yuanmingyuan) including three imperial gardens and hundreds of halls, pavilions, and temples stock full of ancient artwork, antiquities, and literary works. More than a hundred years later, President Xi Jinping (2013- ) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) proclaimed the “rejuvenation” of the Chinese nation with the economic and especially military power to prevent any such recurrence of “national humiliation.” Though not yet a superpower equal in global stature to the United States, the PRC is undoubtedly poised to become the equal if not the superior power in the Asia-Pacific region expanding its territorial claims in the South China Sea and asserting undisputed economic dominance. With government, business, and academic leaders debating how regional and global powers should respond to a rising China. Historical Dictionary of Chinese Foreign Affairs contains a chronology, an introduction, a glossary, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on major events, national institutions, foreign nations, and personages impacting Chinese foreign affairs along with the many institutions of the post-World War II international order that the PRC has engaged especially since the 1970s. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Chinese foreign affairs.

A third edition of this book is now available. This comprehensive and thoroughly updated introduction to Chinese foreign relations discerns the opportunities and limits China faces as it seeks increased international influence. Tracing the record of twists and turns in Chinese foreign relations since the end of the Cold War, Robert G. Sutter provides a nuanced analysis that shows that despite popular perceptions of its growing power, Beijing is hampered by both domestic and international constraints. This text's balanced and meticulous assessment shows China's leaders exerting more influence in world affairs but remaining far from dominant. Facing numerous contradictions and tradeoffs, they move cautiously as they deal with a complex global environment.

This volume explains China’s foreign policy from the perspective of its historical recovery after 1949 and the country’s subsequent rise as a great power, including its transformation into a global power. It also illuminates how China has, in tandem with its rise, developed an increasing array of political, economic, ‘sharp power’ and military capabilities that is helping it to further its increasingly expansive foreign policy objectives. The volume examines two key questions: What have been the implications of China’s rise for its foreign policy? And how has an increasingly powerful and confident China used a range of foreign policy instruments to pursue its expanding national interests in Asia and beyond? The volume is divided into three parts, covering the conceptualization and drivers of China’s foreign policy, China’s relations with the world, and the instruments of China’s foreign policy, namely its economic power, military capabilities and its ‘sharp power’ manipulation of information and relationships. It will be of interest to academics, students and researchers interested in understanding China’s role in world politics.