ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Chinese Communists' economic diplomacy. The shift in Peking's foreign policy led some US scholars to imagine that the United States could play the “[Communist] China card," but it was Peking that played both the "U.S. card" and the "Soviet card." "Foreign policy is the extension of a country's domestic policy"—this commonly cited guide to the study of international politics can best illustrate Peking's formulation of its foreign policy. Well-developed Western Europe, with its abundant economic strength and advanced technology, is regarded as an important target of the Chinese Communists' economic diplomacy. Peking's expansion of economic relations with the West and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union has had unfavorable repercussions on Japan. African countries, which have been hardest hit by Peking's economic diplomacy, have long been the main pillars of Communist China's foreign policy. Economic and trade relations with Western Europe, in particular West Germany, will be more intimate.
