CHINESE FOREIGN RELATIONS

With China's global ascendancy, Chinese foreign policy has become a popular area of study for scholars around the world. Rather than simply contributing to this subject, this book sets out to reflect on the field itself, using as samples some of the author's previous work, both published and unpublished, covering different areas of Chinese foreign policy and adopting different approaches. In doing so, it examines how knowledge about Chinese foreign policy has developed, focusing on areas such as traditions, values, perspectives and regionalism.

The field of Chinese foreign policy has evolved along with international relations and foreign policy analysis. Studies on specific topics have generally been of high quality thanks to the competitive and extensive nature of academic research and exchange, despite a perceived failure to predict Beijing's current assertive foreign policy orientation. Looking forward, this book reflects on how certain current tendencies — excessive focus on national security, narrowing of academic exchange and access between China and the West, and a shift to rivalry-driven analysis — threaten to lower the quality of future Chinese foreign policy studies in Western countries.

Contents:
IntroductionChinese Traditions:China's Political Evolution from Ancient Times to the Opium WarChina's Political Evolution from the Opium War to PresentA First Century BC Chinese Strategic DebateChinese Sovereign Debt in 1853–1914Values and Perspectives:Human Rights in US–China RelationsChina in Africa in the 2000s: Beyond Oil and Human RightsChinese Perspectives on Backlash to the China RiseRegionalism:East Asian Regionalism and Human RightsThe Domestic Political Economy of China's Preferential Trade AgreementsThe Shanghai Cooperation Organization
Readership: This book is targeted towards the academic and policy community focusing on China, Asia, foreign policy and international relations. It would also be suitable reading for graduate level courses in these subject areas.

Ming WAN is Professor and Associate Dean at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government, having completed his PhD from the Government Department, Harvard University (USA). He held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard from the Program on US–Japan Relations, the John M Olin Institute for Strategic Studies and the Pacific Basin Research Center, and was also a visiting research scholar at Tsukuba University and Luce Fellow in Asian Policy Studies at George Washington University–Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He was on academic leave in Japan from August 2010 to August 2012 as a visiting professor at Keio University. He has authored a number of books, including The Political Economy of East Asia: Wealth and Power (2nd edition, 2020) and Understanding Japan–China Relations: Theories and Issues (2016). He has also published in edited volumes, as well as in numerous journals such as Asian Survey, Human Rights Quarterly, Orbis, Pacific Affairs, Pacific Review, and International Studies Quarterly. His current research interests include East Asian international relations, US–China rivalry, and political economy of security.