ABSTRACT
An analytical framework is constructed in this chapter to explain Chinese foreign policy. Starting with Waltz’s three-level international relations theory, the framework adopts a symbiotic neorealist-constructivist approach. According to this analytical approach, Chinese foreign policy is influenced and shaped by a number of factors, some of which fall within the domain of neorealism, while the others are subject to interpretation by constructivism. On the other hand, these factors can also be divided into two categories, conditioning and determining. While China’s geographical and geopolitical environment, power (physical, economic and military), philosophical traditions, historical experience and communist ideology function as conditioning factors, its national interests and the personality traits and leadership styles of individual communist leaders serve as determining factors. The conditioning factors provide physical conditions, power foundation and parameters, and the philosophical, historical and ideological sources of Chinese foreign policy, but it is the determining factor that directly sets the direction and specific objectives of Chinese foreign policy and the approaches to achieve the nation’s foreign policy objectives.
