China and the Great Power Triangle

Abstract

The foreign policy of the People's Republic of China (PRC) has been shaped by the consideration of tripolarity far earlier and more intensively than either of the two superpowers. China, which might be thought to be the one great power to have practiced tripolarity in earlier periods, has neither developed a theory about the great power triangle nor has it put into practice what might be called the rules of such a system. Chinese theorizing about the configurations of world politics also downplays the significance of what might be called the great power triangle. In restrospect it is clear that there were elements in the Chinese Communist leadership as powerful as Zhou Enlai and possibly Mao Zedong himself who sought a relatively independent third great power position for China. A powerful case can be made for the mutual advantages to be secured by both sides from even a limited improvement in Sino-Soviet relations.