ABSTRACT
Dramatic changes have taken place with the collapse of the communist system in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. And change continues; the "world order" is still on the road toward restructuring. The reform and open-door policies of China are not the result of the end of the Cold War per se, since they began in the late 1970s. Significant changes have taken place not only in China's economic, political, and social structures but also in its position and role in the region and in the world. With the collapse of the communist system in Eastern Europe and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the confrontation of two power blocs ended, and the security of the world is no longer tied to the relationship between them. The collapse of the communist systems in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union appears to have made democracy and the market system the winner of the great contest between East and West.
