China and Regional and Global Security
- LAST REVIEWED: 30 August 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 30 August 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920082-0134
- LAST REVIEWED: 30 August 2016
- LAST MODIFIED: 30 August 2016
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199920082-0134
Introduction
Many policymakers, scholars, and pundits throughout the world are concerned about the implications of China’s rise for regional security in Asia and many global security challenges as well. Many analysts have sought to answer this question: Will the rise of China be a source of stability or conflict in Asia and the world at large? This bibliographical article is an attempt to present some of the best works on China’s security relations with the outside world. We focus primarily on the post–Cold War era and try to include the latest research findings as much as possible. We also concentrate more on China’s neighboring regions, believing that China’s security policy has been and continues to be predominantly focused on its surrounding regions. We hope this collection can provide researchers and students in the field of Chinese security policy enough background information about the subject, the different theoretical or analytical approaches, and the major policy debates. In addition to the general overview section, we have divided the whole subject into several sections. These include national security policymaking in China, China’s strategic security culture, Sino-US security relations, Chinese policy views on international security, China’s policies toward various security challenges in its neighborhood, including the Korean Peninsula, the East China Sea dispute with Japan, the Taiwan issue, the South China Sea disputes, security contentions with India, Beijing’s security role in Central Asia, and Sino-Russian security ties. Toward the end of the article, we include two sections on China’s role in global security and nontraditional security.
General Overview
The best primary resource for official views on China’s defense policy is China’s Defence White Papers, published by the Ministry of National Defense, which lay out the government’s official views. Tsinghua University’s Institute of Modern International Relations also has an online database on China’s foreign relations, which offers quantitative data on China’s relations with external powers since 1950. Other primary resources include the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute databases, which contain data on China and peacekeeping, military spending, and arms trading, and the Wilson Center’s Chinese Foreign Policy Database, containing declassified documents regarding China’s foreign relations from 1950. Li and Kemburi 2014 offer an up-to-date overview of China’s security relations with other Asia Pacific powers. Fravel 2008 analyzes China’s resolution of territorial disputes with its neighbors, while Holmes and Yoshihara 2007 discusses China’s increasing naval power. Wang 2014 offers a good introduction to the effects of Chinese nationalism on China’s security policy. Meanwhile, the shadow of the past lingers on; Kang 2009 and Yan 2013 look, from different angles, at how China’s traditional modes of thinking influence its foreign policy today.
Fravel, M. Taylor. Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China’s Territorial Disputes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008.
Looks at why China chooses to use concessions or force to resolve territorial disputes. Links China’s policy on territorial disputes to threats to its domestic stability as well as its bargaining position vis-à-vis other powers.
Holmes, James R., and Toshi Yoshihara. Chinese Naval Strategy in the 21st Century: The Turn to Mahan. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2007.
Investigates China’s increased focus on maritime affairs and speculates on its future development. Analyzes the influence of Mahan’s ideas on China’s geopolitical thinking, particularly given the increasing importance of maritime trade to China.
Kang, David C. China Rising: Peace, Power, and Order in East Asia. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
Argues that the mentality inherent in the tributary system still holds today, acting as a driver of regional stability. Provides an alternative view to traditional Western theories of international relations.
Li, Mingjiang, and Kalyan M. Kemburi, eds. Chinese Power and Asian Security. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2014.
A collection of chapters that starts with an analysis of growing Chinese power, followed by works to determine its impact on the security situation in different parts of the Asia Pacific region. A comprehensive, up-to-date overview of China’s security influence in the region.
Online Database on China’s Foreign Relations, Tsinghua University.
Provides quantitative assessments of China’s foreign and security relations with other major powers since 1950; the addition of similar information regarding China’s relations with neighboring countries is planned.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. “SIPRI Multilateral Peace Operations Database.”
Contains data on China’s contributions to international peacekeeping operations, military expenditures, and arms trade. Other articles include “SIPRI Military Expenditure Database” and “SIPRI Arms Transfers Database.”
Wang, Zheng. Never Forget National Humiliation: Historical Memory in Chinese Politics and Foreign Relations. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.
Makes the case that historical memory which is shaped by the government’s propaganda and “patriotic education” serves as a driving force behind China’s foreign policy. An introductory work on the role of Chinese popular nationalism in China’s foreign relations.
White Papers, Ministry of National Defense, People’s Republic of China.
These white papers provide official Chinese views on China’s military development, national defense policy, and military strategies.
The Wilson Center. “Chinese Foreign Policy Database.”
Contains declassified documents on China’s international relations since 1949.
Yan, Xuetong. Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.
In this volume, Yan argues that Confucian concepts of morality underlie China’s foreign policy thinking, while three respondents offer their critiques. The work provides an insight into traditional Chinese ideas of foreign policy and sheds light on the debates over their relevance to the modern world.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- 1989 People's Movement
- Aesthetics
- Agricultural Technologies and Soil Sciences
- Agriculture, Origins of
- Ancestor Worship
- Anti-Japanese War
- Architecture, Chinese
- Assertive Nationalism and China's Core Interests
- Astronomy under Mongol Rule
- Book Publishing and Printing Technologies in Premodern Chi...
- Buddhism
- Buddhist Monasticism
- Buddhist Poetry of China
- Budgets and Government Revenues
- Calligraphy
- Central-Local Relations
- Ceramics
- Chiang Kai-shek
- Children’s Culture and Social Studies
- China and Africa
- China and Peacekeeping
- China and the World, 1900-1949
- China's Agricultural Regions
- China’s Soft Power
- China’s West
- Chinese Alchemy
- Chinese Communist Party Since 1949, The
- Chinese Communist Party to 1949, The
- Chinese Diaspora, The
- Chinese Nationalism
- Chinese Script, The
- Christianity in China
- Civil Society in China
- Classical Confucianism
- Collective Agriculture
- Concepts of Authentication in Premodern China
- Confucius
- Confucius Institutes
- Consumer Society
- Contemporary Chinese Art Since 1976
- Corruption
- Criticism, Traditional
- Cross-Strait Relations
- Cultural Revolution
- Daoism
- Daoist Canon
- Deng Xiaoping
- Dialect Groups of the Chinese Language
- Disability Studies
- Drama (Xiqu 戏曲) Performance Arts, Traditional Chinese
- Dream of the Red Chamber
- Early Imperial China
- Economic Reforms, 1978-Present
- Economy, 1895-1949
- Emergence of Modern Banks
- Energy Economics and Climate Change
- Environmental Issues in Contemporary China
- Environmental Issues in Pre-Modern China
- Establishment Intellectuals
- Ethnicity and Minority Nationalities Since 1949
- Ethnicity and the Han
- Examination System, The
- Fall of the Qing, 1840-1912, The
- Falun Gong, The
- Family Relations in Contemporary China
- Fiction and Prose, Modern Chinese
- Film, Chinese Language
- Film in Taiwan
- Financial Sector, The
- Five Classics
- Folk Religion in Contemporary China
- Folklore and Popular Culture
- Foreign Direct Investment in China
- Gardens
- Gender and Work in Contemporary China
- Gender Issues in Traditional China
- Great Leap Forward and the Famine, The
- Guanxi
- Guomindang (1912–1949)
- Han Expansion to the South
- Health Care System, The
- Heritage Management
- Heterodox Sects in Premodern China
- Historical Archaeology (Qin and Han)
- Hukou (Household Registration) System, The
- Human Origins in China
- Human Resource Management in China
- Human Rights in China
- Imperialism and China, c. 1800–1949
- Industrialism and Innovation in Republican China
- Innovation Policy in China
- Intellectual Trends in Late Imperial China
- Islam in China
- Jesuit Missions in China, from Matteo Ricci to the Restora...
- Journalism and the Press
- Judaism in China
- Labor and Labor Relations
- Landscape Painting
- Language, The Ancient Chinese
- Language Variation in China
- Late Imperial Economy, 960–1895
- Late Maoist Economic Policies
- Law in Late Imperial China
- Law, Traditional Chinese
- Legalism
- Li Bai and Du Fu
- Liang Qichao
- Literati Culture
- Literature Post-Mao, Chinese
- Literature, Pre-Ming Narrative
- Liu, Zongzhou
- Local Elites in Ming-Qing China
- Local Elites in Song-Yuan China
- Lu, Xun
- Macroregions
- Management Style in "Chinese Capitalism"
- Manchukuo
- Mao Zedong
- Marketing System in Pre-Modern China, The
- Marxist Thought in China
- Material Culture
- May Fourth Movement
- Media Representation of Contemporary China, International
- Medicine, Traditional Chinese
- Medieval Economic Revolution
- Mencius
- Middle-Period China
- Migration Under Economic Reform
- Ming and Qing Drama
- Ming Dynasty
- Ming Poetry 1368–1521: Era of Archaism
- Ming Poetry 1522–1644: New Literary Traditions
- Ming-Qing Fiction
- Modern Chinese Drama
- Modern Chinese Poetry
- Modernism and Postmodernism in Chinese Literature
- Mohism
- Museums
- Music in China
- Needham Question, The
- Neo-Confucianism
- Neolithic Cultures in China
- New Social Classes, 1895–1949
- One Country, Two Systems
- One-Child Policy, The
- Opium Trade
- Orientalism, China and
- Palace Architecture in Premodern China (Ming-Qing)
- Paleography
- People’s Liberation Army (PLA), The
- Philology and Science in Imperial China
- Poetics, Chinese-Western Comparative
- Poetry, Early Medieval
- Poetry, Traditional Chinese
- Political Art and Posters
- Political Dissent
- Political Thought, Modern Chinese
- Polo, Marco
- Popular Music in the Sinophone World
- Population Dynamics in Pre-Modern China
- Population Structure and Dynamics since 1949
- Porcelain Production
- Post-Collective Agriculture
- Poverty and Living Standards since 1949
- Printing and Book Culture
- Prose, Traditional
- Qi Baishi
- Qing Dynasty up to 1840
- Regional and Global Security, China and
- Religion, Ancient Chinese
- Renminbi, The
- Republican China, 1911-1949
- Revolutionary Literature under Mao
- Rural Society in Contemporary China
- School of Names
- Shanghai
- Silk Roads, The
- Sino-Hellenic Studies, Comparative Studies of Early China ...
- Sino-Japanese Relations Since 1945
- Sino-Soviet Relations, 1949–1991
- Social Welfare in China
- Sociolinguistic Aspects of the Chinese Language
- Su Shi (Su Dongpo)
- Sun Yat-sen and the 1911 Revolution
- Taiping Civil War
- Taiwanese Democracy
- Taiwan's Miracle Development: Its Economy over a Century
- Technology Transfer in China
- Television, Chinese
- Terracotta Warriors, The
- Tertiary Education in Contemporary China
- Texts in Pre-Modern East and South-East Asia, Chinese
- The Economy, 1949–1978
- The Shijing詩經 (Classic of Poetry; Book of Odes)
- Township and Village Enterprises
- Traditional Historiography
- Transnational Chinese Cinemas
- Tribute System, The
- Unequal Treaties and the Treaty Ports, The
- United States-China Relations, 1949-present
- Urban Change and Modernity
- Uyghurs
- Vernacular Language Movement
- Village Society in the Early Twentieth Century
- Warlords, The
- Water Management
- Women Poets and Authors in Late Imperial China
- Xi, Jinping
- Xunzi
- Yan'an and the Revolutionary Base Areas
- Yuan Dynasty
- Yuan Dynasty Poetry
- Zhu Xi