Nationalism and Chinese Foreign Policy

Abstract

Is China increasingly a threat to the West? How is Chinese nationalism related to China’s international behaviour? This study answers these questions by examining the relationship between Chinese nationalism and foreign policy since 1949. It argues that the influence of Chinese nationalism for the last half century has been consistently determined by an interaction between the need to preserve China’s national independence and various means to serve this goal, in particular, the key means of development through economic openness. When foreign economic links contradicted the goal of national independence, China became isolated and aggressive. However, when openness supported the goal, China moderated its international behaviour. Thus, China’s future foreign policy will depend on how the concern of seeking and preserving national independence is balanced with the concern of economic development through openness in a new international environment.