A “contextualized” approach to the analysis of the PRC's foreign policy

Abstract

The foreign policy of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is a central theme in contemporary debate, but limited access to information has led to a variety of divergent explanations. Taking up James Rosenau's reflections on the need for a critical approach, this paper explores the four logics prevalent in the analysis of Chinese foreign policy: universalist, exceptionalist, comparativist, and particularist. Each of these responds differently to two fundamental questions, “Is the PRC a unitary actor?” and “Is the PRC a different actor from others?” A contextualized time-factor and policy-factor approach is proposed to test these hypotheses, thereby identifying the analysis with the greatest explanatory value and improving the quality of academic dialogue on Chinese foreign policy.