The Impact of Domestic Politics on Chinese Foreign Policy

Abstract

China has been an authoritarian state for hundreds of years. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) does not change the basic nature of the state even though it has carried out domestic reform and opening-up policy in the last 24 years. Since 1978 when Deng Xiaoping started the economic reform and opening-up policy, great changes have been taking place in China. Economically, the market economy mechanism has come into existence, but politically there is still a single party system. There are hardliners and liberals in China who greatly dispute on China’s domestic and foreign policies. But there is one point they always agree on: to maintain the ruling position of the CCP. When we look at the domestic politics of China, the rule of the Communist Party is the most important element. And it is this matter that directs the tendency and development of China’s foreign policy.