ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the controversy among Chinese international relations scholars in the period of 2010-2015 over the important issue of China’s diplomacy in five areas. There are: the strategic goals of national interests, the key to safeguarding national interests, the means of safeguarding national interests, the operation of national interests, and the scope of national interests. “National interest” is the core concept of international politics. It is the starting point and foothold of foreign policy. The primary interest of a country is its core interest. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Deng Xiaoping established China’s national interest strategy as “the modernization of China”. The Sino-US relationship has an important impact on the realization of China’s national interests. It is the key to safeguarding national interests. China’s non-alliance policy was put forward in the 1980s, in order to avoid becoming a vassal of any superpower in the then US-Soviet hegemony, and to protect China’s right to independence.
