Table Of ContentChina’s Foreign Policy and Practice
This book is one of the first wide-ranging surveys of China’s foreign policy and practice
from the 16th century to the present day from a Chinese perspective. A modern history
of China’s interaction with major powers, it throws new light on the events and issues
of major interest, clarifies possible points of ambiguity and misunderstanding, and
brings the reader up to date about some of the current issues of contention in China’s
international relations.
China’s Foreign Policy and Practice:
• Presents a unique account of Chinese statecraft and foreign policy from the
vantage point of an insider who has spent years participating in the decision-
making process at the national level;
• Paints a larger picture of China’s interaction with the world, connecting wars,
negotiations, treaties, and boundary settlements with its neighbours;
• Focuses on policy evolution in specific areas, such as trade, regional diplomacy,
dispute settlement, crisis management, and engagement with major powers;
• Draws on Chinese records and publications that may not be readily accessible, as
well as the latest memoirs and declassified documents;
• Is a nuanced, comprehensive and accessible guide for students of international
politics as well as general readers interested in China.
A unique history of China in world affairs, this book will be essential reading for
students of politics and international relations, history, foreign policy, diplomacy,
China studies, and Asian studies.
Wenguang Shao’s international career has spanned academia, government, and
business. In the 1980s, he taught in Beijing as a university lecturer and worked in New
York as a simultaneous interpreter with the U.N. He was a senior diplomat in China’s
foreign service in the 1990s before he moved into television media in Hong Kong and
Britain, doubling as a consulting senior fellow at I.I.S.S. (2015–2017). He holds an
M.A. degree from the Fletcher School and a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford. He
does consultancy work in his retirement and divides his time between London, Beijing,
and Hong Kong.
China’s Foreign Policy and Practice
A Survey
Wenguang Shao
Cover image by sdlgzps / Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
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© 2023 Wenguang Shao
The right of Wenguang Shao to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Shao, Wenguang, author.
Title: China’s foreign policy and practice: a survey/Wenguang Shao.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022025945 (print) | LCCN 2022025946 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032035536 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032293264 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003301073 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: China — Foreign relations.
Classification: LCC DS740.4.S737 2023 (print) | LCC DS740.4 (ebook) |
DDC 327.51 — dc23/eng/20220705
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022025945
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022025946
ISBN: 978-1-032-03553-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-29326-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-30107-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003301073
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Meisun and Xiaohai
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction 1
1 Centrality of China and Foreign Contacts 11
2 Barbarians at the Gate 34
3 Opening Pandora’s Box 74
4 Japan’s China Wars 104
5 The Turn of the Century 122
6 The War of Resistance Against Japan 153
7 A New Power Under Test 195
8 Security Priorities 240
9 Boundary Settlements 284
10 Ups and Downs with the Superpowers 312
11 Refocusing on Asia 352
12 Africa and the Middle East 403
13 Trade Negotiations 465
14 Regional Diplomacy 503
viii Contents
15 Statecraft and Crisis Management 538
Conclusion: China’s Place in the World 594
Bibliography 605
Index 614
Illustrations
1.1 The Cage, with Mrs Noble. A British transport rig, the Kite,
was wrecked somewhere near Zhoushan during the truce in
September 1840, whereupon all its seamen and marines were seized
by the local authorities and transferred to Ningbo in small cages,
including the wife of Captain Noble, who accompanied her husband 182
1.2 An illustration of the 1860 Battle of Taku Forts, also called Battle
of the Peiho Forts, during the Second Opium War, etching
by James Grant 182
1.3 Ambassador Extraordinary Li Hongzhang of China (seated on the
right) with Emperor Nicholas II of Russia (seated on the left) at
the latter’s coronation at the Kremlin on 26 May 1896. Li’s son
(adopted) Li Jingfang, standing between Li and Nicholas II, acted
as interpreter. Author: Scherer, Nabholz & Co. (1863–1918) 183
1.4 Members of the commission of the League of Nations created
by the plenary session of the Preliminary Peace Conference,
Paris, 1919. First row standing (left to right): Constantine
Diamandy (Rumania), Col. Edward M. House (United States),
Roman Dmowski (Poland), Milenko R. Vesnitch (Serbia),
Jan Smuts (British Empire), Woodrow Wilson (United States),
Paul Hymans (Belgium), V. K. Wellington Koo (China), and
Jaime Batalha-Reis (Portugal). Second row standing: Karal
Kramar (Czechoslovakia, fourth from left), and Vittorio
Scialoja (Italy, sixth from left); seated (left to right):
Chinda Sutemi (Japan), Makino Nobuaki (Japan), Leon
Bourgeois (France), Lord Robert Cecil (British Empire), Vittorio
Emanuele Orlando (Italy), Epitacio Pessoa (Brazil), and Eleftherios
Venizelos (Greece). By an unknown photographer, 1919 184
1.5 The ceremony for Japan’s unconditional surrender in the China
theatre was held in the auditorium of the Central Military
Academy in Nanjing on 9 September 1945 at 8:51 a.m. Gen.
Ho Ying-chin, commander-in-chief of the Chinese Army (central
figure on the Chinese side), and Gen. Okamura Yasutsugu (冈村
宁次), commander of Japanese Expeditionary Forces in Central
China, signed the Act of Surrender. General Okamura (figure in
Japanese uniform on foot behind the seated figures on the Japanese
side opposite), after the signing of the surrender document, is seen
