ABSTRACT
A horizontal view of the overall foreign-policy decision-making structure reveals three basic types of actors: the central leadership, the major foreign affairs bureaucracies and institutions, and the working-level officials in the foreign affairs establishment. There are four components in the central leadership: the paramount leader or leading nucleus, the nuclear circle, members of the Politburo Standing Committee, and the other members of the Politburo, particularly its Beijing residents and the Secretariat. The most important characteristics of China's foreign-policy decision-making are that it is highly centralized and that in terms of key decisions it is very much personalized. This chapter presents a number of case studies follow that focus not only on the dynamics but also on the environment surrounding some specific foreign-policy decisions made during the eras of Mao and Deng. Mao's role in the key decisions that determined the fundamental orientations of China's foreign policy and that propelled China into wars or military confrontations with foreign powers.
