Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Paths Towards Chinese Foreign Policy

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Competition and Compromise among Chinese Actors in Africa

Part of the book series: Governing China in the 21st Century ((GC21))

  • 297 Accesses

Abstract

Traditionally, those who study the foreign policy of China have argued that the Chinese foreign-policy process is centralized and secretive by nature. However, a number of studies have shown that the system has become less centralized and more open (Z. Zhou, 2010; Q. Zhang, 2010; Chan, 1978). Linda Jakoson and Dean Knox (2010, p. 48) find that ‘it is no longer possible to think of China’s decision makers as a unitary force’. They claim that, ‘In contemporary China a cacophony of voices urges Chinese decision makers to pursue a variety of foreign policies’ (2010, p. 47). This implies that in terms of foreign-policy making, China has moved from a highly centralized body where only a few actors are involved in the process to a more decentralized system with a greater number of participants.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Based on interviews with members of staff at the Copenhagen Business School conducted in the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies 2007.

  2. 2.

    Based on an interview with an editor of China Daily in Beijing in 2008.

  3. 3.

    Revenue from natural resources such as oil is shared between local and central governments.

  4. 4.

    Based on an interview with Hiejiong Fishery’s board official, conducted in London in 2008.

  5. 5.

    Based on interviews with Wenzhou Foreign Affairs Office in Wenzhou in 2007.

  6. 6.

    Based on an interview with a member of Shanghai Foreign Affairs Office in Cork in 2008.

  7. 7.

    Based on an interview with a member of Shanghai Foreign Affair office in Cork in 2008 and based on interviews with Wenzhou Foreign Affair Office in Wenzhou in 2007.

References

  • Bachman D (1998) Structure and Process in the Making of Chinese Foreign Policy. In: Kim SS (ed) China and the World: Chinese Foreign Policy Faces the New Millennium, 4th edn. Westview Press, Boulder, pp 34–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachman D (2003) New Leader, New Foreign Policymaking Procedures? In: Gang L, Xiaobo H (eds) China after Jiang. Stanford University Press, Stanford, pp 115–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnett AD (1967) Cadres, Bureaucracy, and Political Power in Communist China. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennhold K, Burns JF (2008) Protests Halt Olympic Torch Relay in Paris. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/world/europe/07iht-07torch4.11736987.html. Accessed 11 April 2018

  • Cabestan JP (2009) China’s Foreign- and Security-policy Decision-making Processes Under Hu Jintao. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 38(3):63–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Cabestan JP (2017) China’s Institutional Changes in the Foreign and Security Policy Realm Under Xi Jinping: Power Concentration vs. Fragmentation Without Institutionalization. East Asia 34:113–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Chan S (1978) Chinese Conflict Calculus and Behavior: Assessment from a Perspective of Conflict Management. World Politics 30:391–410

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen J (2001) Mao’s China and the Cold War. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen Y (1995) The Decision Process Behind the 1986–1989 Political Reforms. In: Hamrin CL, Suisheng Z, Doak AB (eds) Decision-making in Deng’s China: Perspectives from Insiders. M. E. Sharpe, New York, pp 133–153

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheung PTY, Tang JTH (2001) The External Relations of China’s Provinces in Lampton. In: David M (ed) The Making of Chinese Foreign and Security Policy in the Era of Reform, 1978–2000. Stanford University Press, Stanford, pp 91–122

    Google Scholar 

  • Chou BKP (2009) Government and Policy-making Reform in China, The Implications of Governing Capacity. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Dabla-Norris E (2005) Issues in Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in China. International Monetary Fund, IMF Institute

    Google Scholar 

  • Daniel ER (2003) Hu Jintao: The Making of a Chinese General Secretary. The China Quarterly 173:17–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickson B (2006) The Future of the Chinese Communist Party: Strategies for Survival and Prospects for Change. In: Chung JH (ed) Charting China’s Future: Political, Social, and International Dimensions. Roman & Littlefield, New York, pp 21–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Dittmer L (2001) Reform and Chinese Foreign Policy. In: Dickson BJ, Chein-min C (eds), Remaking the Chinese State: Strategies, Society, and Security. Routledge, London, pp 171–189

    Google Scholar 

  • France 24 (2008) Anti-French Protests Sweep across China. http://www.france24.com/en/20080419-china-olympics-anti-french-protest-beijing-2008. Accessed 21 January 2016

  • Garnaut R (2008) Thirty Years of Chinese Reform and Economic Growth: Challenges and How It has Changed World Development. Paper presented at Thirty Years of Reform and Development in the PRC Retrospect and Prospects CCER, Peking University, Beijing, 25–26 October 2008

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill B (1992) Chinese Arms Transfers: Purposes, Patterns, and Prospects in the New World Order. Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill B (1998) Chinese Military Modernization and Arms Proliferation in the Asia-Pacific. In: Pollack JD, Yang RH (eds) In China’s Shadow: Regional Perspectives on Chinese Foreign Policy and Military Development. RAND Corporation, Washington, DC, pp 10–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill B, Medeiros ES (2000) Foreign and Domestic Influences on China’s Arms Control and Nonproliferation Policies. The China Quarterly 161:66–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill B, Mulvenon J (2002) Chinese Military-Related Think Tanks and Research Institutions. The China Quarterly 171:575–596

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilks A, Segal G (1985) China and the Arms Trade. St Martin’s Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Glaser BS, Saunders PC (2002) Chinese Civilian Foreign Policy Research Institutes: Evolving Roles and Increasing Influence. The China Quarterly 171:597–616

    Google Scholar 

  • Guoli L, Su H (2006) Civil Society and Chinese Foreign Policy. In: Yufan H, Lin S (eds) China’s Foreign Policy Making: Societal Force And Chinese American Policy. Ashgate Publishing, Surrey, pp 169–186

    Google Scholar 

  • Hocking B (1993) Localizing Foreign Policy: Non-Central Governments and Multilayered Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke

    Google Scholar 

  • Huiyun F (2007) Chinese Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy Decision-making, Confucianism, Leadership and War. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt MH (1996) The Genesis of Chinese Communist Foreign Policy. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Jakoson L, Knox D (2010) New Foreign Policy Actors in China. SIPRI No. 26

    Google Scholar 

  • Joffe E (1998) Party-Army Relations in China: Retrospect and Prospect. In: Shambaugh D, Yang RH (eds) China’s Military in Transition Studies on Contemporary China, 1st edn. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 35–52

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, AI (2006) The Correlates of Beijing Public Opinion towards the United States 1998–2004. In: Ross RS, Johnston AI (eds) New Directions in the Study of China’s Foreign Policy. Stanford University Press, Stanford, pp 340–378

    Google Scholar 

  • Kim SS (1998) Chinese Foreign Policy in Theory and Practice. In: Kim SS (ed) China and the World, Chinese Foreign Policy faces the New Millennium, 4th edn. Westview Press, Boulder, CO

    Google Scholar 

  • Lampton DM (2001) China’s Foreign and National Security Policy-Making Process; is It Changing and Does It Matter? In: Lampton DM (ed) The Making of Chinese Foreign and Security Policy in the Era of Reform, 1978–2000. Stanford University Press, Stanford, pp 1–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Lampton DM (2015) Xi Jinping and the National Security Commission: Policy Coordination and Political Power. Journal of Contemporary China 24(95):759–777

    Google Scholar 

  • Le-Yin Z (1999) Chinese Central-Provincial Fiscal Relationships, Budgetary Decline and the Impact of the 1994 Fiscal Reform: An Evaluation. The China Quarterly 157:115–141

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieberthal K (2003) Governing China: From Revolution to Reform, 2nd edn. WW Norton & Company, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, APL (2009) Rebirth and Secularization of the Central Party School in China. The China Journal 63:105–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Lu N (1997) The Dynamics of Foreign Policy Decision-making in China, 2nd edn. Westview Press, Boulder

    Google Scholar 

  • Lu T (2002) Review of Sino-African Friendly Relations. Beijing Review, pp 7–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Naughton B (2002) China’s Economic Think Tanks: Their Changing Role in the 1990s. The China Quarterly 171:625–635

    Google Scholar 

  • Ogden S (2004) From Patronage to Profits, The Changing Relationship of Chinese Intellectuals with the Party-State. In: Goldman M, Gu E (eds) Chinese Intellectuals between State and Market. Routledge, London, pp 111–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Oksenberg M (1974) Methods of Communications Within the Chinese Bureaucracy. The China Quarterly 57:1–39

    Google Scholar 

  • Roy D (2009) China’s Democratised Foreign Policy. Survival 51(2):25–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Selden M (1971) The Yenan Way in Revolutionary China. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Shambaugh DL (1987) China’s National Security Research Bureaucracy. The China Quarterly 110:276–304

    Google Scholar 

  • Shambaugh D (2002) China’s International Relations Think Tanks: Evolving Structure and Process. The China Quarterly 171:575–596

    Google Scholar 

  • Shambaugh D (2004) Modernizing China’s Military: Progress, Problems, and Prospects. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Shambaugh D (2008) Training China’s Political Elite: The Party School System. The China Quarterly 196:827–844

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaoguang W (1995) The Rise of the Regions: Fiscal Reform and the Decline of Central State Capacity in China. In: Walder AG (ed) The Waning of the Communist State: Economic Origins of Political Decline in China and Hungary. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp 87–113

    Google Scholar 

  • Shirk SL (2007) China Fragile Superpower. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Sleeboom-Faulkner M (2007) Regulating Intellectual Life in China: The Case of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The China Quarterly 189:83–99

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutter RG (2008) Chinese Foreign Relations, Power and Policy Since the Cold War. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD

    Google Scholar 

  • Taeho K (2003) Leading Small Groups, Managing all Under Heaven. In: Finkelstein DM, Kivlehan M (eds) China’s Leadership in the 21st Century: The Rise of the Fourth Generation. M. E. Sharpe Inc., New York, pp 121–139

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanner MS (2002) Changing Windows on a Changing China: The Evolving “Think Tank” System and the Case of the Public Security Sector. The China Quarterly 171:559–574

    Google Scholar 

  • Wei L (2007) Bureaucratic Politics Interministerial Coordination and China’s GATT/WTO Accession Negotiations. In: Ka Z (ed) China’s Foreign Trade Policy: The New Constituencies. Routledge, London pp 101–117

    Google Scholar 

  • Wibowo I, Liang Fook L (2006) China’s Central Party School: A Unique Institution Adapting to Changes. In: Brodsgaard KE, Zheng Y (eds) The Chinese Communist Party in Reform. Routledge, London, pp 139–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Xuanli L (2006) Chinese Foreign Policy Think Tanks and China’s Policy Toward Japan. The Chinese University Press, Hong Kong

    Google Scholar 

  • Yanmin Y (2006) The Role of the Media: A Case Study of China’s Media Coverage of the U.S. War in Iraq. In: Yufan H, Lin S (eds) China’s Foreign Policy Making: Societal Force and Chinese American Policy. Ashgate Publishing, Hampshire, pp 69–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Yongjin Z (2016) Introduction Dynamism and Contention: Understanding Chinese Foreign Policy Under Xi Jinping. International Affairs 92(4):769–772

    Google Scholar 

  • Yumin S (2005) Central–Provincial Relations at the CCP Central Committees: Institutions, Measurement and Empirical Trends, 1978–2002. The China Quarterly 182:338–355

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y (2010) Fēizhōu guójì guānxì zhōng de duìhuà hézuò qūshì (Africa dialogue and cooperation in international relations trends), Yáng guāng zhōngdōng fēizhōu huángpíshū zhōngdōng fēizhōu fāzhǎn bàogào No. 12 (2009–2010): Guójì jīnróng wéijī duì zhōngdōng fēizhōu jīngjì de yǐngxiǎng (Middle East and Africa, the Middle East, Africa Development Report Beige Book No. 12 (2009–2010): International Financial Crisis on the Economy of the Middle East, Africa)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhao D (2002) An Angle on Nationalism in China Today: Attitudes among Beijing Students after Belgrade 1999. The China Quarterly 172:49–69

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou Z (2010) Bureaucratic Politics and the Research of Chinese Foreign Policy Making in the US. Foreign Affairs Review 4:68–80

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University College Cork, Republic of Ireland, Cork, Ireland

    Niall Duggan

Authors
  1. Niall Duggan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Niall Duggan .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Duggan, N. (2020). Paths Towards Chinese Foreign Policy. In: Competition and Compromise among Chinese Actors in Africa. Governing China in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8813-2_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation