China's Foreign Policy Contradictions: Lessons from China's R2P, Hong Kong, and WTO Policy [Hardcover]

China's rise to great power status is indisputable but can it shape the future international order? This question remains widely debated because China's foreign policy is contradictory. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this book shows that China does not act from a position of strength, but that foreign policy contradictions are the result of the domestic vulnerabilities of the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Providing exceptional insights into the considerations behind the opaque institutional structures of Chinese foreign policymaking and decision making, it shows that China will not provide a model for a new international system, but could undermine the existing order.Throughout the post-Mao reform era, China has championed the principle of sovereign state control, which holds that states should not intervene in the affairs of other states. Yet as Tim Nicholas R?hlig argues inChina's Foreign Policy Contradictions, in recent years they have not actually acted this way. Chinese foreign policy actions fail to match up with official rhetoric, and these inconsistenciesin combination with China's growing power-will have dramatic effects on the future shape of international order.To explain these contradictions, R?hlig draws from a rich battery of in-depth interviews with party-state officials to explain the foreign policy dynamics and processes of the normally opaque Chinese party-state. He demonstrates how different sources of the Chinese Communist Party's domestic legitimacy compete within the complex and highly fragmented Chinese party-state, resulting in contradictory foreign policies. He focuses on three issue areas: international human rights law and responsibility to protect (R2P); China's role in World Trade Organization (WTO) policymaking; and China's evolving relationship with Hong Kong. In each area, different factions within the party-state wrestle for control, with domestic legitimacy of the party always being the overriding goal. This incesslƒ!