Foreign Relations of the PRC: The Legacies and Constraints of China's International Politics since 1949

by Robert G. Sutter professor of International Affairs, George Washington University

Overview

Now in a fully updated edition, this cogent but comprehensive book examines the international relations of the People’s Republic of China since its founding in 1949. Noted scholar Robert G. Sutter provides a balanced assessment of the country’s recent successes and advances as well as the important legacies and constraints that hamper it, especially in nearby Asia—long the focus of China’s foreign policy attention. Sutter demonstrates how Beijing has carefully created an image of a China that follows consistent policies based on morally correct principles, but its record shows repeated episodes of sometime surprising change and frequent use of violence, intimidation, and coercion. China’s leaders, he argues, still fail to manage the desire for productive foreign relations with their aspirations to build Chinese security and sovereignty interests. Image-building efforts condition Chinese public and elite opinion to be extraordinarily sensitive, self-righteous, and often alarmist in dealing with the many disputes China has with its Asian neighbors and the United States. Advances that the PRC has made in other parts of the world focus mainly on commercial interests, limiting its actual impact on world affairs. Sutter shows readers how to use China’s rise in nearby Asia as a reliable barometer of how important and effective the country will actually become internationally.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538107478
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	07/12/2018
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert G. Sutter was an analyst of Asian and Pacific affairs and American foreign policy for the U.S. government for thirty years. He is now professor of practice of international affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Assessing China’s Role in World Affairs
2. Mao’s Changing Course in Foreign Affairs, 1949–69
3. Maneuvering between the United States and USSR, 1969–89
4. Chinese Foreign Relations after the Cold War
5. Patterns in Decision Making and International Outlook
6. China’s Changing Importance in World Affairs
7. Relations with the United States
8. Relations with Neighboring Asian Countries
9. Relations beyond Nearby Asia
10. Outlook

Chronology
Glossary of Key Terms
Selected Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

A refreshing tour de force of the PRC’s foreign relations over the past seven decades. Meticulously researched and masterfully composed, Robert Sutter’s balanced treatise on China’s engagement of the world explains how the legacies and aspirations define Chinese foreign policy ambitions. Thoroughly revised and expanded, this updated edition provides both the preliminary assessment of Xi Jinping’s first term in power and an insightful analysis of the difficult challenges that Beijing will have to face and overcome in the coming years in order to achieve preeminence in Asia and great-power stardom in the international system.

Jingdong Yuan

Robert Sutter is one of America’s most knowledgeable and thoughtful observers of Chinese foreign policy. In this book, he offers a comprehensive and nuanced analysis of the multiple and complex historical, domestic, and international sources of Chinese foreign policy toward a wide range of countries and issue areas. In particular, Sutter offers a judicious and balanced analysis of the rise of China and of China’s challenge to international stability and US global leadership. He argues that despite increased Chinese economic and military capabilities, China’s diplomacy is beset by significant domestic and international problems that constrain its international influence. Foreign Relations of the PRC makes a timely and most valuable contribution to our understanding of the implications of rising China for world affairs and US security.

Robert Ross

Written by a distinguished academic with government experience in the practice of foreign policy, Robert Sutter's book provides a comprehensive overview of Chinese foreign policy since ‘liberation’ in 1949. Taking due account of China's more prominent international role since 2010 without getting bowled over, Sutter maintains a judiciously balanced view of China's future prospects. Highly recommended.

Lowell Dittmer

Sutter’s book is a timely contribution that provides a thorough survey on PRC’s foreign relations based on solid observation of the drastic shifts and unpredictability in China’s behavior patterns since 1949, which, as the author argues, constrain China’s current program to exert greater influence in the Asia-Pacific. This book is recommended for general readers as well as researchers looking for updated studies of China’s foreign relations.

East Asia Integration Studies

This is simply the best up-to-date text on China's foreign relations available. In his detailed and measured study, Professor Sutter—a seasoned and sober observer—deflates the exaggerated estimates of many analysts about China’s rise and global influence by arguing that the country’s image and relations around the world are actually quite troubled and that China’s international behavior has been highly unpredictable and narrowly self-centered. This is a well-researched, strongly argued, and definitive assessment of China's role in the world.

David Shambaugh

Robert Sutter, who has contributed much to the understanding of China's foreign policy, brilliantly shows how from its early beginnings to the present day there has been a disconnect between China's self-image as an international actor and how its actual behavior has damaged its relations with neighbors and limited its capacity to contribute to international order. This should be of great interest to both students and diplomats.

Michael Yahuda

This is an important book that will be extremely valuable for anyone who wants to know more about the PRC’s current policies, the historical background of China’s place in the world, and the meaning of China’s 'rise.'

Pacific Affairs

Sutter is a China expert who worked for the Congressional Research Service (as well as other government agencies) for more than 30 years and now is an international relations (IR) professor at George Washington University. He challenges the assessment of some specialists that a power shift is now occurring in the Asia-Pacific because of China's extremely rapid economic development and rising military power, making China likely to supplant the US. The volume surveys China's foreign relations in ten chapters. Sutter begins by describing the important characteristics of policy, such as its interest-based nature (notwithstanding rhetoric emphasizing principles). In three chapters he describes the changing course of policy, from the Maoist era (1949-69) to rapprochement with the US (1969-89) and the post-Cold War era. He forays into the decision-making environment and China's changing global importance. Then, three chapters discuss China's relations with the US, neighboring Asian countries, and with countries beyond Asia. Sutter concludes by emphasizing that China's IR focus will remain on its periphery, and it has far to go to "emerge in a dominant position in Asia." Comprehensive, up-to-date, and balanced in coverage; superior to Donald Gross's China Fallacy Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.

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