Why would China jeopardize its relationship with the United States, the former Soviet Union, Vietnam, and much of Southeast Asia to sustain the Khmer Rouge and provide hundreds of millions of dollars to postwar Cambodia? Why would China invest so much in small states, such as those at the China-Africa Forum, that offer such small political, economic, and strategic return? Some scholars assume pragmatic or material concerns drive China's foreign policy, while others believe the government was once and still is guided by Marxist ideology. Conducting rare interviews with the actual policy makers involved in these decisions, Sophie Richardson locates the true principles driving China's foreign policy since 1954's Geneva Conference. Though they may not be "right" in a moral sense, China's ideals are based on a clear view of the world and the interaction of the people within it-a philosophy that, even in an era of unprecedented state power, remains tied to the origins of the PRC as an impoverished, undeveloped state. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty; nonaggression; noninterference; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence live at the heart of Chinese foreign policy and set the parameters for international action. In this model of state-to-state relations, the practices of extensive diplomatic communication, mutual benefit, and restraint in domestic affairs become crucial to achieving national security and global stability.

The concept of 'harmonious world' has become the basis for the new principles and goals of Chinese foreign policy under the fourth generation leadership. The question remains, however, about the exact meanings of these principles and slogans, and their implications for Chinese foreign policy. This is the first edited volume that attempts to address this significant question, and its insightful contributions elucidates new dimensions of Chinese foreign policy and their implications for China's relations with the world.

This volume looks at China's foreign policy from the perspective of learning theory, a relatively new approach to foreign policy analysis based on social psychology. It begins by attempting to conceptualize China's distinctive approach to policy learning, and then proceeds with a tentative periodization of China's learning experience from 1979 to 1999. It concludes that Chinese foreign policy learning has exhibited a certain continuity since the founding of the People's Republic, with learning and teaching structured to alternate with and complement each other.

The book examines, linking two key variables – ‘political leadership’ and ‘foreign policy’ – the role of Deng Xiaoping in China’s foreign policy shift after Mao in politico-strategic and economic domains. The book finds out that guided by his own personality, worldview, experience, pragmatism, belief and style Deng attempted to resolve the long-standing domestic and foreign policy issues. Most importantly, Deng moved from the primacy of politics to economic modernisation which resulted in far-reaching changes in China’s external engagement. The book's central inquiry is to assess the contemporary relevance of Deng’s foreign policy paradigm. It establishes that the relevance of Deng’s policy continues in the present context except for China’s pro-activeness towards issues pertaining to its territorial integrity and sovereignty. Using China’s case, the study advances the framework of understanding pertaining to the role of political leadership in foreign policy.

Since the end of the Cold War, the new Chinese leadership generation has had to promulgate new guiding principles for handling global diplomacy which acknowledges China's new position. Given the dramatic changes in the international system and its domestic economic success for the growing 'China's rise' idea on the global stage, China in the 21st century faces a mixture of old and new challenges, including terrorism, hegemonism, and authoritarianism. While Deng Xiaooping combined Taoism, an ancient Chinese philosophy, into 'Taoist diplomacy' in response to the hostile international position after the Tiananmen Incident, China's foreign policy keeps changing, and the multidimensional diplomacy adopted by China can be seen as a consistent theme in Chinese foreign policy in the 21st century. Multidimensional Diplomacy of Contemporary China attempts to examine the origins, guiding principles and sequential outcomes of China's multidimensional diplomacy in the 21st century, working under the flag of 'peaceful development,' 'harmonious international order,' and 'global responsibility.' The contributions are grouped into three sections. The first discusses the theoretical foundations of multidimensional diplomacy. The second section turns the analytical focus to China's immediate neighbors in East Asia, and at last the book will go beyond the immediate neighborhood of China to the global community. These essays explore China's dealings with the countries of Africa, the Gulf, and the South Pacific and provide other in-depth analyses on China's foreign policy towards Pakistan, Russia, and Japan. This book seeks to significantly shape the knowledge and thinking about China's global interactions in the 21st century.

Deng Xiaoping is widely acknowledged as the principal architect of China’s economic reforms, but how far was he also responsible for shaping China’s foreign policy which emphasized “peace and development”? This book explores Deng’s foreign policy and shows how he established basic principles for China to have a foreign policy which supported economic development, which stressed “harmony” in the world rather than “hegemony”, and which avoided conflict and nurtured a peaceful approach. The book outlines how Deng worked to normalize relations with both the United States and the Soviet Union, how he was disappointed by the lack of reciprocation by the United States, where relations are still portrayed in terms of “the China threat”, and how the principles established by Deng continue to be adhered to.