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China and the World
Quick questions on The evolution of Chinese foreign policy explained: H2 China Studies
6short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is deng's strategy?Show answer
The foundation of reform-era foreign policy was laid by Deng Xiaoping, and its logic flowed directly from the priority of economic development. Deng judged that China needed a stable, peaceful international environment in which to concentrate on growing its economy, and that a weak, developing China should avoid provoking the major powers or taking on costly global commitments. This produced the famous strategic guidance often summarised as "hide your strength and bide your time" (taoguang yanghui): keep a low profile, avoid leadership, do not seek confrontation, and focus on building national strength. Foreign policy was, in effect, the servant of the domestic project of development.
What are expanding interests?Show answer
A balanced evaluation adds a second driver: China's interests themselves have expanded. Decades of growth globalised China's economy, creating dependence on distant trade routes, energy and raw-material supplies, overseas investments, and large numbers of citizens working abroad. Protecting these globalised interests requires a more active and far-reaching foreign policy, more diplomacy, more presence, more capacity to act beyond China's borders. So part of the increased activism is not merely greater confidence but a genuine broadening of what China needs its foreign policy to do.
What is weighing the shift?Show answer
The most accurate judgement is that China's foreign policy has shifted from caution to assertiveness primarily because its capability has grown, allowing it to pursue largely constant core goals more openly and forcefully, with a secondary driver in the broadening of its globalised interests. The continuity of the underlying objectives is striking: regime security, sovereignty, development and great-power status have been the through-line from Deng to Xi. The change is therefore mostly one of means and confidence, the natural assertiveness of a state that has become strong, rather than a fundamental transformation of aims.
What is q1?Show answer
Explain what Deng Xiaoping's "hide your strength and bide your time" meant for foreign policy. [4 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Explain how China's economic growth broadened its foreign-policy interests. [12 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
"China's foreign policy has changed its means, not its ends." How far do you agree? [20 marks]
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