CHINESE FOREIGN POLICY DISCOURSE: SOURCES, PATTERNS AND TRANSFORMATION

Abstract

With the rise of China, a major shift is underway in the international political architecture. China’s exponential growth in its power potential along with its expansion of core interests and influence in the region and beyond is indicative of a transformative shift in international politics. This is evident more starkly since President Xi Jinping’s ascent to power and his proclamation of the Chinese Dream that seeks to achieve the goals of modernization and a developed Chinese nation by 2049. In addition, China’s regional clout and global outreach via its broad-based Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) seeks to combine and integrate multiple regions in a network of economic connectivity. The thesis investigates the rise of China from a historical lens mapping the ideational shift in its foreign policy discourse from a revolutionary to a pragmatic and in contemporary times towards an assertive posturing. The key questions that the thesis asks are: What does China actually want? What are the sources of Chinese foreign policy and reasons for its turn towards a more proactive and assertive foreign policy? How can we understand and explain the China Dream as an intent and motivation for Chinese foreign policy? The thesis hypothesizes that the proactive assertion of core Chinese interests combined with consideration of global positionality (competition with United States) determines Chinese assertive foreign policy at the regional and global levels. Taking cue from the theory of neoclassical realism, the thesis argues that the foreign policy behaviour of a China is influenced by varying degrees of domestic and systemic factors and particularly the nature of the strategic environment and power positionality in the international system. Methodologically, the thesis utilises the Historical analysis, content/document analysis methods to evaluate both primary and secondary sources to draw inferences and conclusions on China’s foreign policy and the transformative shift from Mao’s revolutionary discourse to Deng Xiaoping’s keeping the low profile and Xi Jinping’s striving for achievement.