China analysis: Geopolitics on Chinese Terms, September 2010

In the September 2010 China Analysis - ‘Geopolitics on Chinese Terms’- published by ECFR and Asia Centre, the writers look at the debate within the Chinese foreign policy community over how it should deal with Europe and the rest of the world.

Important trends include:

• The US and Western institutions are no longer seen to dominate the world. Instead there is permanent flux and complexity, and China needs to manoeuvre carefully if it is to continue its rise.

• Powered by the supercharged growth in the Chinese economy, Beijing no longer has a victim mentality when it deals with the outside world. In foreign policy circles there is little evidence of the nationalist and populist trends that are often highlighted by Western media.

• Europe, Japan and Russia are considered to be losing influence rapidly. There is a widespread belief that Europe’s status within international institutions in untenable.

• Chinese relations with the BRIC countries are a high profile concern, and there is a widely held belief that the emergence of rising powers is changing the nature of foreign affairs.

China Analysis introduces European audiences to the debates inside China’s expert and think-tank world, and helps the European policy community understand how China’s leadership thinks about domestic and foreign policy issues.

• Primary Source

ECFR: Programmes: China http://ecfr.eu/content/programmes/C11/

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