Multilateral Approach in China's Foreign Policy

Since the mid-1990s, the Chinese authorities have gradually come to embrace multilateralism to realize their basic foreign policy objectives in maintaining a peaceful international environment and enhancing China's international status and influence. This embrace is largely based on pragmatic considerations. There is no denial, however, that elements of liberalism and constructivism gradually enter into the considerations of Chinese leaders. They accept, for example, that non-traditional security issues can only be tackled through genuine multilateralism. This volume carefully examines China's increased participation in multilateral organizations and mechanisms and its efforts to initiate and develop its own discourses on global affairs straddling Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Latin American continents. China's presence in international multilateral organizations has been providing developing countries a better chance to maintain a balance of power. Since China has no ambitious plan to transform the existing international order, its increasing enthusiastic engagement of multilateralism is likely to be accepted by the international community.

Contents:

• Preface

• About the Author

• Multilateralism — Theoretical Issues and China's Approach in Foreign Policy (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)

• China in Asia:

  • China's Asian Policy: Adjusting to Its Increasing Strength (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)
  • China's Regional Strategy and Challenges in East Asia (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)
  • China's Evolving Regional Strategy in East Asia (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)
  • China's ASEAN Policy in the 1990s: Pushing for Regional Multipolarity (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)
  • From the Path of Least Resistance to Increasing Assertiveness: China's Way of Engagement in Southeast Asia (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng and Huangao Shi)
  • The ASEAN–China Free Trade Area — Updates on the Treaty's Econometric Evaluation (Stefania Paladini and Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)
  • China–ASEAN Economic Cooperation and the Role of Provinces (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)

• China and the World:

  • The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: China's Initiative in Regional Institutional Building (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)
  • China's Approach to SCO: Institutional Development, Economic Cooperation, Security and the Challenge from Afghanistan (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)
  • China's Relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council States: Multilevel Diplomacy in a Divided Arab World (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)
  • China's Approach to BRICS (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)
  • Latin America in China's Contemporary Foreign Policy (Joseph Yu-Shek Cheng)
  • China's African Policy: Increasing Importance and Active Adjustments (Joseph Yu-Shek Chengg and Huangao Shi)

• Bibliography

• Index

Readership: Policymakers, academics, professionals, undergraduate and graduate students interested in China's foreign policy.
Key Features:

• It is a valuable reference book for undergraduate students, postgraduate students and scholars in the fields of China's foreign policy and international relations in the Asia-Pacific
• It is a most up-to-date account of China's approaches to its most significant multilateral regional organizations and forums
• In view of China's importance in international politics and economy, it is important to understand its policy