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China AN OVERVIEW OF CHINA'S FOREIGN RELATIONS
Affected by the confluence of a myriad of factors, including
its historical legacy, worldview, nationalism, ideology, the
decision-making process in Beijing, and the international
situation, China's foreign relations have had a rich and varied
development in the years since 1949. Two aspects of Chinese foreign
policy that have led to wide fluctuations over time are the degree
of militancy or peacefulness Beijing has espoused and its
ambivalence in choosing between self-reliance and openness to the
outside world. Although dividing something as complex as foreign
policy into time periods necessarily obscures certain details,
Chinese foreign relations can be examined roughly by decades: the
Sino-Soviet alliance of the 1950s, isolation and radicalism in the
1960s, increased international involvement in the 1970s, and the
independent foreign policy of the 1980s. During each of these
periods, China's relations with the rest of the world underwent
significant changes.
Data as of July 1987
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