ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses only one aspect of foreign policy, that of underlying strategic emphases and dilemmas. Policy is after all the purposeful use of ensembles of means to pursue recognized ends, and an important challenge for policy analysts is to discern these underlying concerns amidst a welter of specific acts and statements. The chapter argues that the Chinese elite agenda featured national autonomy, political perpetuation, economic modernization, and leadership of the developing areas. The leadership of the People's Republic of China seeks to combine continuity of purpose with a far more diverse and still growing repertoire of strategies or means to what are by traditional ends. The general problem of Peking's foreign economic policy is how to find a sustainable way of getting advantageous benefits from involvement in the international economy without granting undue leverage to foreigners. The Peking leadership has always tended to view military aspects of national security in a political context.
