China Turns to Multilateralism: Foreign Policy and Regional Security (Routledge Contemporary China)
Language: English
Pages: 318
ISBN: 0415666465
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
China’s recent rapid economic growth has drawn global attention to its foreign policy, which increasingly has had an impact on world politics. In contrast with China’s long-standing preference for bilateralism or unilateralism in foreign policy, recent decades have seen changes in the PRC’s attitude and in its declaratory and operational policies, with a trend toward the accepting and advocating of multilateralism in international affairs. Whilst China’s involvement has been primarily in the economic arena, for example, participation in the World Trade Organization and ASEAN Plus Three, it has more recently expanded into international security institutions, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
This book records, analyzes, and attempts to conceptualize, this phenomenal development in Chinese foreign policy and its impact on international relations, with the emphasis on China’s active participation in multilaterally-oriented regional security regimes. Written by an impressive team of international scholars, this book is the first collective effort in the field of China studies and international relations to look at China’s recent turn to multilateralism in foreign affairs. It will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese politics and foreign policy, security studies and international relations.
differences and conflicts, states usually resort to diplomatic channels. In 1998 China’s Ministry of National Defence and the United States Department of Defense signed an agreement on establishing a consultation mechanism to strengthen military maritime safety.39 Under the agreement, both sides agree that their respective maritime and air forces operate “in accordance with international law, including the principles and regimes reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea”
mutual benefit; and (5) peaceful coexistence. The Five Principles first appeared in the Agreement between the Republic of India and the People’s Republic of China on Trade and Intercourse between Tibet Region of China and India, signed on 29 April 1954.90 Since then, the Five Principles have been reiterated in China’s foreign policy documents as well as in agreements, declarations, and joint statements signed between China and other countries that are willing to incorporate those principles into
different voices will continue to articulate different versions of “peaceful rise,” only to crowd the literature with even more different interpretations. One example was the idea put forward by the Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), General Cao Gangchuan, in late March 2004, that “the international society needs to reciprocate by understanding and supporting China’s policy to maintain its own internal social stability and territorial integrity, since China’s rise is integral
(FICS), which enabled a conference on ‘China’s Diplomacy of Multilateralism’ in December 2004. This volume is the fruit of that conference. In particularly, we thank our friends at the FICS, especially Jonathan Chen, for their help in applying for the conference grant. The Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives at the University of Victoria, with which we are affiliated, organized the conference and facilitated the editing of this publication. Our colleagues at CAPI, including Richard King,
navigation and overflight. The latter includes such activities as task force manoeuvring, anchoring, intelligence collection and surveillance, military exercises, ordnance testing and firing, and hydrographic and military surveys.29 For the purpose of this Article, military activities refers to those activities in the second category, as defined above, i.e. other than simple navigation or overflight. As we know, there is a controversy over whether the conducting of military activities in the EEZ