China's Struggle for Status: The Realignment of International Relations

by Yong Deng

Overview

At the end of the Cold War the People's Republic of China found itself in an international crisis, facing severe problems in both domestic politics and foreign policy. Nearly two decades later, Yong Deng provides an original account of China's remarkable rise from the periphery to the center stage of the post-Cold War world. Deng examines how the once beleaguered country has adapted to, and proactively realigned, the international hierarchy, great-power politics, and its regional and global environment in order to carve out an international path within the globalized world. Creatively engaging with mainstream international relations theories and drawing extensively from original Chinese material, this is a well-grounded assessment of the promises and challenges of China's struggle to manage the interlacing of its domestic and international transitions and the interactive process between its rise and evolving world politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521714150
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/28/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Yong Deng is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the United States Naval Academy. He has published widely on Asian international relations and Chinese foreign policy.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. International status and Chinese foreign policy; 3. Negotiating the human rights standard; 4. Reacting to the 'China threat theories'; 5. Strategic partnerships with Russia, the European Union, and India; 6. Independent rivalry with Japan; 7. Rediscovering Asia and Africa: the multilateral turn; 8. Taiwan and China's rise; 9. China's foreign relations and the emerging great-power politics.

Editorial Reviews

At last, there is a book that addresses China’s craving for status in foreign policy that does not ignore the larger literature. In fact, Yong Deng not only places his examination of China’s quest for international respect firmly within international relations theory, he also grounds his approach in the relevant literature from psychology and sociology. As a result, China’s fixation with status becomes much more comprehensible—and can be understood more as a distinctive attribute rather than a uniquely Chinese characteristic only intelligible on its own terms…Scholars and practitioners alike can benefit greatly from this timely and thoughtful treatment of contemporary Chinese foreign policy.
Andrew Scobell, Texas A&M University, Political Science Quarterly

“Yong Deng’s volume, thereby, offers a much needed and an extremely erudite conceptual analysis of China’s emerging international agency. It also provides a comprehensive reconsideration of Beijing’s external affairs from the point of view of International Relations theory…The volume offers a wealth of solid knowledge and sharp insights on the evolution, patterns and practices of China’s foreign policy…To the buffs of Chinese foreign policy, this insightful account offers a superbly researched study of Beijing’s international agency. Moreover, Deng’s study of China’s status politics makes available a rare glimpse into the normative underpinnings of the country’s external affairs.”
Emilian Kavalski, Europe-Asia Studies

From the Publisher