Unit information: Contemporary Chinese Foreign Policy in 2017/18

Unit name	Contemporary Chinese Foreign Policy
Unit code	POLIM0033
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Zhang
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	Students will be unable to take this Unit if they have already taken the equivalent H level unit POLI30023.
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

PLEASE NOTE – this unit is only available for students registered on MSci Politics with Quantitative Research Methods or MSci Sociology with Quantitative Research Methods.

This unit is designed to engage students in critical examination of key challenges to Chinese foreign policy and international relations. It looks at how history, geography and domestic politics combined help shape China’s world outlook, as well as the motivations, objectives and drivers of Chinese foreign policy. It also examines the structure and processes of Chinese foreign policy-making in China’s Party-state political system with particular reference to the new leadership of Xi Jinping. Within this analytical framework, major challenges to Chinese foreign policy are to be discussed, including China’s great power relations with the US and Japan, China’s pursuit of regionalism in East Asia, and China’s engagement with economic globalization and global governance. Through these discussions, the global impact of a rising China is also to be debated.

This unit aims to help students:

• Acquire an analytical understanding of various aspects of contemporary Chinese foreign policy;
• Develop analytical ability/skill to explain the structure and processes of Chinese foreign policy making;
• Formulate critical assessment of China’s changing role in global politics and world economy; and

Understand the impact of a rising China on the transformation of the regional and global international system.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:

• Obtain theoretical understanding of the structure and processes of Chinese foreign policy making;
• Conduct critical analysis of various challenges of and to Chinese foreign policy through engaging in various theories of international relations;
• Make scholarly assessment of the impact of a rising China on regional and global international relations.

Teaching Information

1 hour lecture + 2 hours seminar per week

Assessment Information

• 1000 word essay outline (0%)
• 3000 word essay (100%)

Both assess all learning outcomes.

Reading and References

Christensen, Thomas (2015) The China Challenge: Shaping the Choice of a Rising Power, New York: W. W. Norton.

Deng, Yong (2008) China’s Struggle for Status: Realignment of International Relations, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Jakobson, Linda and Dean Knox (2010) New Foreign Policy Actors in China, SIPRI Policy Paper No. 26, Stockholm: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Nathan, Andrew and Andrew Scobell (2014) China’s Search for Security, New York: Columbia University Press.

Shambaugh, David (2013) China Goes Global: The Partial Power, New York: Oxford University Press.

Wang, Jisi (2011) ‘China’s Search for a Grand Strategy—A Rising Power Finds Its Way’, Foreign Affairs, 90 (2): 68-79.