China's contemporary foreign relations and defence developments

Abstract

After four decades of post-war revolutionary struggle, erratic swings of domestic policies and dramatic changes in leadership style, the People's Republic of China (PRC) is apparently set on a stable pragmatic path which is intended to take a technologically advanced nation into the twenty-first century. An international policy based on extensive economic relations with both Western and Eastern blocs, coupled with the promotion of global conciliation is the foreign policy formula which Beijing considers will best promote its domestic interests. Throughout the Maoist period which dominated almost thirty years of the Republic's existence, the global policy was one promoting a 'United Front' with fellow Third World nations based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, while simultaneously attempting to extricate the nation from the overriding influence of the Soviet Union. To avoid "leaning to one side", being overdependent on any one major power, thereby became the leitmotif of Beijing's foreign policy as Sino-Soviet discord was parallelled by open criticism of the imperialistic aggression of the capitalist superpower, the United States. However, shifts in the global balance by the early 1970s and Washington's desire to conciliate with the People's Republic led to a reappraisal of Beijing's international posture, with the U.S.A. coming to be regarded more benignly.