Patterns and Choices of Chinese Foreign Policy

Abstract

A country's behavior patterns in the international community consist of a set of norms, processes, and values through which the country deals with domestic and international issues. In many cases, behavior patterns may affect a country's policy choices; therefore, such choices have become an important research subject for scholars in international relations and comparative politics. This article will analyze the foreign policy of the People's Republic of (PRC) since its establishment in 1949, with special emphasis on its foreign-policy behavior patterns, sources of these patterns, and policy choices. Two years after the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, veteran watcher A. Doak Barnett conducted a thorough analysis of China's future directions and concluded that China will continue to undergo changes, but at its and in its distinctive way.' This article attempts to define these profound changes and determine the nature of China's own pace and own distinctive way in not only its foreignpolicy behavior but also its domestic behavior insofar as it influences foreign policy. It will also take that analysis a further step by looking toward future directions in the PRC's foreign policy and the implications of that policy for other countries.