ABSTRACT

The independent foreign policy may be seen as designed to bring about a more peaceful international environment in which China can concentrate its efforts on domestic modernization. China's self-proclaimed independent foreign policy that had been developed since 1982 continued to serve China well throughout most of 1985. A related but separate issue concerning China's foreign policy arises from the problems involved in becoming more economically interdependent with the outside world. Although neither development, in superpower relations or in the politics of economic interdependency, seemed likely to undermine the main directions of China's policy, they attested once again to the greater degree of volatility inherent in China's foreign policy as compared to those of the other major powers. One aspect of the new independent foreign policy stressed the pursuit of a peaceful international environment in which China could focus on domestic modernization.