Chinese international relations theory of statecraft and party

This chapter explains how Chinese international relations theory is formed and put into practice. It utilizes political economy to identify and sketch the main components of Chinese international relations theory and assesses the viability of the Chinese Communist Party’s contemporary great power statecraft. Leader’s thought as a method of power to determine the correct path—validation of ideology by the leader—is reviewed and the thoughts of Mao, Deng and Xi are outlined. How a declared correct path is then propagated by the vanguard party is reasoned to be an essential component of converting Chinese international relations theory into policy. However, theory built from the ideology of Chinese Marxism-Leninism as socialism with Chinese characteristics is found to incorrectly attribute the People’s Republic of China’s development success to socialism rather than the liberal and mercantilist derived policies followed since Deng Xiaoping’s reforms from the late 1970s. The utility of present Chinese international relations theory is thus found to be limited as it is undermined by the ideological requirement to constantly struggle for socialism which results in the dysfunctional policy of hegemonism. As a result, the chapter disrupts the illusion that Chinese international relations theory has the same broad goals of enhanced collaboration between states and the prevention of conflict that other international relations theory professes.