ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the main argument that, global and regional, system-level and unit-level variables have always driven China's relations with its neighboring countries in the direction of change. The three historical patterns of China's relations with its neighboring countries were the results of the interplay of the two variables. A new pattern has emerged in the post-Cold War era, opening up the ideal prospect of an open regional community, besides other possibilities. China's geopolitical location is quite unique, surrounded as it has been over the past two millennia by numerous continental and maritime neighbors. Today the People's Republic of China (PRC) has more neighboring countries than any other country in the world, sharing land borders with fourteen countries, and maritime borders with eight. However, the long history of China's relationship with its neighboring countries has been subject to the vicissitudes of change.
