The City in Late Imperial China.

China's national power is growing rapidly, but what China will do with its newfound capabilities remains an issue of contentious debate among scholars and policymakers. At the heart of the problem is the difficulty of divining future intentions. Two arguments have dominated the debate. One focuses on power and likely Chinese revisionism. The other highlights China's growing interdependence and likely future satisfaction. Both are problematic in terms of logic and evidence. They offer linear projections that ignore the way that China's future is likely to be contingent—especially on the interaction of foreign policy ideas and events. Relative power and interdependence are important but their impact is mediated through the doctrines leaders use to justify action and establish authority: those ideas are prone to change in regular ways—and with them China's intentions. If this argument is right, policy prescriptions that advocate containing, engaging, or some mix of the two (i.e., hedging) in relations with China need to be reconfigured.Jeffrey W. Legro is Professor and Chair in the Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics and Co-Director of the Governing America in a Global Age Program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia (legro@virginia.edu). The author thanks Robert Ross, Tang Shiping, Brantly Womack, and Zhu Feng for helpful comments and Daniel Aaron Weir for excellent research assistance.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/B0E877258F3E2AD60284E655ED026039/S1537592707071526a.pdf/div-class-title-what-china-will-want-the-future-intentions-of-a-rising-power-div.pdf

What China Will Want: The Future Intentions of a Rising Power

Economic Development in Asian Perspective.

Chinese diplomat V.K. Wellington Koo (1888-1985) was involved in virtually every foreign and domestic crisis in twentieth-century China. After earning a Ph.D. from Columbia University, Koo entered government service in 1912 intent on revising the unequal treaty system imposed on China in the nineteenth century, believing that breaking the shackles of imperialism would bring China into the "family of nations." His pursuit of this nationalistic agenda was immediately interrupted by Chinese civil war and Japanese imperialism during World War I. In the 1930s Koo attempted to use international law to force western powers to honor their treaty obligations to punish Japanese expansion. Koo also participated in creating the League of Nations and later the United Nations in the hope that collective security would become reality.

V.K. Wellington Koo and the Emergence of Modern China

Part I The Setting[-]Introduction[-]1 The Comparative Framework[-]Part II Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Philippines[-]2 The Foundations of a Global Stage [-]3 The Trilogy of Triangular Trade: Junk Trade, Trans-Pacific Trade, and Provision Trade[-]Part III [-]4 Triangular Foreign Relations[-]5 Zooming Out: Local-Central Dualism[-]6 Local-Central Tensions: Geopolitical Strategies, Intelligence, and Information Gathering[-]Part IV Zooming In: Early Modern Manila and Regional Globalisation[-]7 Manila as Port City[-]8 Actors and Agency[-]Conclusion[-]

https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/125997/1/TremmlWerner_ToC_Intro.pdf

Spain, China, and Japan in Manila, 1571-1644: Local Comparisons and Global Connections

Chinese views of Western relations kept changing during the 1840-95 period, with a quickened tempo after 1860. Generally, foreign policy views changed from a 'closed door' policy in the forties to the 'good faith' policy based on the Confucian principle of sincerity during the sixties. Modern diplomatic skills, especially the idea of international law, were stressed during the ensuing two decades. Power politics, particularly the concepts of balance of power and alliance with strong countries, prevailed during the eighties and nineties. In spite of all these changes, the power of conservatism remained strong. Success in the introduction of things Western into China depended in large measure on the extent to which they were compatible with this tradition. China's inertia can also be seen in the views held by some political leaders towards the West. In addition to the conservatives, many literati-officials who championed Western learning were at the same time anti-Christian. Modernization in some senses meant Westernization.

Yen-P'ing Hao

Papers

Changing Chinese views of Western relations, 1840–95