Mark Beeson, Fujian Li, China's Regional Relations: Evolving Foreign Policy Dynamics

摘要

What is the implication of China's unprecedented economic development on its international status and influence? Will China be a more responsible stakeholder, or will the emergence of China present a fundamental challenge to the incumbent hegemony and the existing international order? Scholarly debates on these issues have bifurcated by two approaches. One, conventional realist speculation which argues that a more economically successfully China will inevitably become more influential and trigger a growing competition, if not confrontation and conflict, with the United States. Two, liberal claims which predict that China's active participation in international institutions and its growing economic interdependence with other countries would favor a world in which China is likely to take more responsibilities and acts in a more self-restrained way in international arena. This book holds that China's regional policy toward its neighboring countries could predict the overall direction of China's foreign policy and the outlook of China's international role in the future. It is part of a growing of literature that focuses on China's post-Cold War foreign policy dilemma, namely, how to reconcile its desire for greater international influence given its growing economic, military, and political power and its need to alleviate external concerns and fears over China's pursuit of economic and military modernization.