Chinese Scholars and Foreign Policy: Debating International Relations

How does China see the rest of the world? One way to answer this question is to look at the work of China’s scholars in the field of International Relations (IR). This leads to a second question – to what extent do Chinese IR scholars influence Beijing’s foreign policy and outlook? The contributors to this book seek to answer these key questions, drawing on their own first- and second-hand experiences of involvement in scholarly IR debates in China.

Discussing fundamental aspects of China’s foreign policy such as China’s view of the international structure, soft power projection, maritime disputes, and the principle of non-interference, this book provides insights into the hinterland of Chinese foreign policy-making. It is an invaluable reference for global IR scholars, especially those with a direct interest in understanding and predicting China’s actions and reactions on a range of international issues.

Huiyun Feng is senior lecturer in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. She is a former Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace. Her publications have appeared in the European Journal of International Relations, Security Studies, The Pacific Review, International Politics, Chinese Journal of International Politics, and Asian Perspective. She is the author of Chinese Strategic Culture and Foreign Policy Decision-Making: Confucianism, Leadership and War (Routledge, 2007) and the co-author of Prospect Theory and Foreign Policy Analysis in the Asia Pacific: Rational Leaders and Risky Behavior (Routledge, 2013).

Kai He is professor of International Relations in the Griffith Asia Institute and Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. He is currently an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow (2017–2020). He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program (2009–2010). He is the author of Institutional Balancing in the Asia Pacific: Economic Interdependence and China’s Rise (Routledge, 2009), the co-author of Prospect Theory and Foreign Policy Analysis in the Asia Pacific: Rational Leaders and Risky Behavior (Routledge, 2013), and the author of China’s Crisis Behavior: Political Survival and Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 2016).

Yan Xuetong is the dean and distinguished professor in the Institute of International Relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. He also serves as Secretary General of the World Peace Forum and the Editor-in-Chief of the Chinese Journal of International Politics. He is the Vice Chairman of both the China Association of International Relations Studies and the China Association of American Studies, plus serves as a member of the Consultation Committee in the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC. Professor Yan received his PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley in 1992. He is the author of many books and articles, including Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power (Princeton, 2011).