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China The Influence of Ideology
An important influence on Chinese foreign policy that has
especially affected China's interpretations of world events has
been ideology, both Marxist-Leninist and Maoist. The ideological
components of China's foreign policy, whose influence has varied
over time, have included a belief that conflict and struggle are
inevitable; a focus on opposing imperialism; the determination to
advance communism throughout the world, especially through the
Chinese model; and the Maoist concept of responding with
flexibility while adhering to fundamental principles.
One of the most basic aspects of China's ideological worldview
has been the assumption that conflict, though not necessarily
military conflict, is omnipresent in the world. According to
Marxist-Leninist analysis, all historical development is the result
of a process of struggle, between classes within a nation, between
nations themselves, or between broader forces such as socialism and
imperialism. A basic tenet of Chinese leaders holds that the
international situation is best understood in terms of the
"principal contradictions" of the time. Once these contradictions
are understood, they can be exploited in order to, as Mao said,
"win over the many, oppose the few, and crush our enemies one by
one." China has amplified the Leninist policy of uniting with some
forces in order to oppose others more effectively in a
united front (see Glossary).
Chinese leaders have urged the formation of various
united fronts as they have perceived the contradictions in the
world to change over time.
Perhaps because of the belief in struggle as necessary for
progress, for most of its history after 1949 China considered world
war inevitable. This changed in the 1980s, when Chinese leaders
began to say that the forces for peace in the world had become
greater than the forces for war. One reason for growing world
stability was seen in "multipolarization," that is, the growth of
additional forces, such as the Third World and Europe, to
counterbalance the tension between the United States and the Soviet
Union. China's description of world events as a struggle between
opposing forces, however, remained unchanged.
Opposition to imperialism--domination by foreign powers--is
another major ideological component of Chinese foreign policy. The
Leninist emphasis on the struggle against imperialism made sense to
Chinese leaders, whose nationalism had evolved in part in reaction
to China's exploitation by foreign powers during the nineteenth
century. Although opposition to imperialism and hegemony has
remained a constant, the specific target of the opposition has
changed since 1949. In somewhat oversimplified terms, China focused
on opposing United States imperialism in the 1950s; on opposing
collusion between United States imperialism and Soviet revisionism
in the 1960s; on combating Soviet social-imperialism or hegemony in
the 1970s; and on opposing hegemony by either superpower in the
1980s.
The extent of China's determination to advance communism
throughout the world is another component of its foreign policy
that has fluctuated since 1949. In the early 1950s and during the
1960s, Chinese leaders called for worldwide armed struggle against
colonialism and "reactionary" governments. China supplied
revolutionary groups with rhetorical and, in some cases, material
support. Central to support for leftist movements was the idea that
they should take China as a model in their struggle for national
liberation. Chinese leaders expressed the belief that China's
experience was directly applicable to the circumstances in many
other countries, but they also stressed the importance of each
country's suiting its revolution to its own conditions--creating
ambiguity about China's position on "exporting" revolution. For
most of the time since 1949, China's dedication to encouraging
revolution abroad has appeared to receive a lower priority than
other foreign policy goals.
Militancy and support for worldwide revolution peaked during
the Cultural Revolution, when China's outlook on liberation
struggles seemed to take its cue from Lin Biao's famous 1965 essay
"Long Live the Victory of People's War!" This essay predicted that
the underdeveloped countries of the world would surround and
overpower the industrial nations and create a new communist world
order. As a result of alleged Chinese involvement in subversive
activities in Indonesia and several African countries in the late
1960s, those nations broke off diplomatic relations with Beijing
(see
table 4, Appendix B).
By the 1980s China had lessened or discontinued its support for
most of the revolutionary and liberation movements around the
world, prominent exceptions being the Palestine Liberation
Organization and resistance fighters in Cambodia and Afghanistan.
Despite its shift toward cultivating state-to-state relations with
established governments, many other countries continued to be
suspicious of China's intentions. Especially in Asia, where Beijing
previously supported many local communist parties, China's image as
a radical power intent on fomenting world revolution continued to
affect the conduct of its foreign relations into the late 1980s.
One of the major characteristics of Chinese foreign policy
since 1949 has been its claim of consistently adhering to
principles while particular interpretations and policies have
changed dramatically. A statement by Mao Zedong seems to summarize
this apparent contradiction: "We should be firm in principle; we
should also have all flexibility permissible and necessary for
carrying out our principles." Although claiming that, on the whole,
China has never deviated from such underlying principles as
independence and safeguarding peace, Chinese leaders have made
major shifts in foreign policy based on their pragmatic assessment
of goals and the international situation. Aiding this
interpretation of the primacy of principles in Chinese foreign
policy has been the emphasis on long-term goals. According to
Chinese leaders, China has pursued a long-term strategy is
"definitely not swayed by expediency or anybody's instigation or
provocation." In keeping with the view of Chinese foreign policy as
constant and unvarying, Chinese pronouncements often describe their
policy with words such as "always" and "never."
An example of how certain principles have provided a framework
of continuity for Chinese foreign policy since 1949 is found in the
Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (see Glossary)
embodied in
an agreement signed by China and India in 1954. The five principles
played an important role in the mid-1950s, when China began to
cultivate the friendship of newly independent nations of Asia and
Africa. By the time of the Cultural Revolution, however, China was
involved in acrimonious disputes with many of these same nations,
and their relations could have been described as anything but
"peacefully coexistent." The Five Principles of Peaceful
Coexistence were reemphasized in the 1980s, were considered the
basis for relations with all nations regardless of their social
systems or ideology, and were made a part of the 1982 party
constitution.
Data as of July 1987
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