The united front doctrine and China's foreign policy

Abstract

The thesis attempts to answer two questions: what has been the influence of the united front doctrine on China's foreign policy; in what ways, if any, has China's participation in the international system caused Peking to revise its conception of a united front in world politics? After the united front doctrine is considered in its historical context in Chapter One, Chapter Two sets out the methodology that is to be employed in the thesis. This consists essentially of a united front model' in which it is assumed that the united front doctrine actually does influence China's foreign policy. An 'alliance model' in the same chapter offers an alternative set of propositions about China's foreign policy. The remainder of the thesis examines China's actual behaviour in order to ascertain the extent to which it corresponds to either model. Chapter Three assesses the influence of the united front doctrine on China's 'general policy line'. It finds that the doctrine's influence was greatest during the 1958-1965 period but also that the doctrine has been changed to some extent since the Cultural Revolution. The last four chapters comprise case studies of China's relations with Indonesia, Pakistan, Cambodia and Tanzania. The object is to examine whether China's relations with any individual country may be understood in terms of the united front doctrine. None of the case studies yields wholly unambiguous results but Sino-Indonesian relations come closest to the 'united front model', while Sino-Pakistan relations fit most closely the 'alliance model'. The Cambodian case must be seen mainly in the context of developments in the rest of Indochina. The Tanzanian case study is included because Peking's publicly proclaimed policy for the whole of Africa in the early 1960's clearly reflected certain aspects of the united front doctrine. However, China's policy towards Tanzania also provides an unusual and interesting example of the 'adaptation' of ideology. Show more