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China Relations with the Developed World
Since 1949 China's overriding concerns have been security and
economic development. In working toward both of these goals, China
has focused on its relations with the superpowers. Because most of
the developed world, with the exception of Japan, is fairly distant
from China and is aligned formally or informally with either the
Soviet Union or the United States, China's relations with the
developed world often have been subordinate to its relations with
the superpowers. In the 1950s China considered most West European
countries "lackeys" of United States imperialism, while it sided
with Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. As China's relations with
the superpowers have changed, so have its ties with other developed
nations. An example of this is that more than a dozen developed
countries, including the Federal Republic of Germany, Spain, Japan,
Australia, and New Zealand, all established diplomatic relations
with China after the Sino-American rapprochement in the early
1970s.
The developed nations have been important to China for several
reasons: as sources of diplomatic recognition, as alternative
sources of trade and technology to reduce reliance on one or the
other superpower, and as part of China's security calculations. In
the 1980s China stressed the role of developed nations in ensuring
peace in an increasingly multipolar world. Australia and Canada
were important trading partners for China, but Beijing's most
important relations with the developed world were with Japan and
Europe.
Data as of July 1987
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