Overview

"Throughout the post-Mao reform era, China has championed the principle of sovereign state control, which holds that states should not intervene in the affairs of other states. Yet as Tim Nicholas Rühlig argues in China's Foreign Policy Contradictions, in recent years they have not actually acted this way. Chinese foreign policy actions fail to match up with official rhetoric, and these inconsistenciesDLin combination with China's growing power-will have dramatic effects on the future shape of international order. To explain these contradictions, Rühlig draws from a rich battery of in-depth interviews with party-state officials to explain the foreign policy dynamics and processes of the normally opaque Chinese party-state. He demonstrates how different sources of the Chinese Communist Party's domestic legitimacy compete within the complex and highly fragmented Chinese party-state, resulting in contradictory foreign policies. He focuses on three issue areas: international human rights law and ""responsibility to protect"" (R2P); China's role in World Trade Organization (WTO) policymaking; and China's evolving relationship with Hong Kong. In each area, different factions within the party-state wrestle for control, with domestic legitimacy of the party always being the overriding goal. This incessant competition within the state's institutions often makes the PRC's foreign policy contradictory, undermining its ability to project and promote a ""China Model"" as an alternative to the existing international order (and more specifically as a champion of nonintervention). Instead, it often pursues narrowly nationalistic interests. By elucidating how foreign policymakers strategize and react within the context of a massive and complex bureaucratic system that is constantly under pressure from many sides, Rühlig shows not only why China's foreign policy is so inconsistent, but why it is likely to contribute to a more particularistic, plural, and fragmented international order in the years to come. This book represents a significant advance in our understanding of the foreign policymaking process in authoritarian regimes."

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9780197573303

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Reviews

By elaborating on the diversity of actors and the multiple layers of Chinese politics, he offers a sound explanation for the perceived contradictions in China's engagement in global affairs and delineates ways to deal with an internally fragmented China. * Nele Noesselt, The China Quarterly * Drawing on extensive policy research and over 150 ethnographic interviews, the book admirably details the internal dynamics of Chinese policy-making and offers a valuable counterweight to portrayals of China as a monolithic unitary actor. * Vincent K. L. Chang, Leiden University, Netherlands, International Affairs *

Drawing on extensive policy research and over 150 ethnographic interviews, the book admirably details the internal dynamics of Chinese policy-making and offers a valuable counterweight to portrayals of China as a monolithic unitary actor. * Vincent K. L. Chang, Leiden University, Netherlands, International Affairs *

Author Information

"Tim Nicholas Rühlig is a research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations and an associate fellow with The Swedish Institute of International Affairs analyzing Europe-China relations and Chinese foreign and industrial policyDLincluding high technology and Hong Kong politics. His current projects focus on China's domestic determinants of Chinese foreign policymaking, China's growing footprint in technical standardization, the emerging US-China technology rivalry and its implications for Europe. In addition to his academic research, Rühlig provides policy advice to European policymakers such as the European Commission. He chairs the working group ""high technology and innovation"" of the EU-funded COST Action ""Europe in China Research Network"" (CHERN) and is a member of the European Think-tank Network on China (ETNC), which he coordinated in 2018."

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