Since the 1990s, China’s impressive growth has imposed a series of profound changes on East Asia and within the global community. China’s expanding political influence, diplomatic voice, military strength, and economic engagement have impacted traditional geopolitical and economic issues, while also impacting global society, culture and ideology.  Given China’s rise will continue in the new century, issues have arisen such as the trends and effects of China’s growth, what type of country China will likely become, and how to respond to a growing China—all of these issues have led to scholarly debate and significant policy deliberation.

The major objectives of this course are to provide various analytical aspects to understand the changes and turning points of Chinese foreign policy, and the causes of the changes and their characteristics. The course will also review China’s bilateral and multilateral involvement, China’s policies toward key functional issues in an international setting, the contrasting international perspectives to China’s policies, and China’s responses. The course will unfold the major elements of Chinese foreign policy along a theoretical and historical background, to consider the impetus—historical, leadership, institutional, and ideological factors—behind China’s major foreign policy decisions. The course then will move to more geographical and thematic issues, to analyze how China has reacted to foreign pressure, interacted with established global powers such as the United States and neighboring countries, behaved in international institutions, and managed new emerging issues. This course also takes an interest in bringing different perspectives of international relations to problems facing China’s foreign policy and behavior. The course includes readings and research articles to examine the patterns of China’s behavior across issue areas and time, aiming to integrate the study of Chinese foreign policy to the broader field of international relations.

The structure of this class and course reading will include three parts. First, we will begin with a brief review of general international relations literature and studies of Chinese foreign policy. We will then introduce students to fundamental historical and geographical parameters that affect the foundations and principles of contemporary Chinese foreign policy, following analyses of domestic institutions and processes, and the pluralization of societal groups and identity in the Chinese foreign policy making system. After the introduction, we will study decisions toward functional issues in security, reform and international participation during critical junctures of the Mao, Deng, and post-Cold War eras. The final part of the course will examine China’s contemporary policies and interactions with major neighboring states in East Asia and the United States. 

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