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China's soft power has attracted considerable attention in the recent decade. In this volume scholars from the U.K., Europe, the U.S., Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and mainland China, including a number of well established and well known analysts on China, examine main areas where China has made noticeable advances in its appeal and influence. They include China's foreign policy discourse, international communication, cultural diplomacy, and foreign assistance. In addition, Chinese concept of soft power, foreign policy strategy, and the relationship between its international standing and that of the U.S. are also closely analysed. The volume covers some of the most recent development and assesses China's soft power critically. This book offers an assessment of China's efforts to cultivate its international image, as well as a critique of Nye's theory of soft power. It draws on case studies of the Chinese diplomatic practice and utilizes world opinion polls. This volume offers a theoretical and empirical perspective on the discussion on soft power with a particular focus on China's soft power.

This volume is an updated survey and assessment of the recent policy initiatives of Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, which have come to be known as the Hu-Wen's New Deal. Individual chapters are written by scholars from different academic disciplines and backgrounds. These scholars hail from Singapore, the United States, Australia, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China. Topics cover the patterns and process of leadership succession, emerging political factions, social unrest, sources of economic growth, income disparities, social security reform, land use policy, banking reform, corporate governance, labor and population policies, rule of law, and changes in the Party and ideology. On the external aspects, discussion includes China's changing relations with the U.S., Japan and ASEAN. In many ways, the Hu-Wen leadership today is still coming to grips with the same issues and problems as discussed in this book.

Built on rich data analyses, this book offers a fresh and in-depth explanation of how China's pro-reform leaders successfully launched controversial policies to promote private and foreign economic sectors, managed leadership conflict, and ensured reform in the provinces and rapid growth in the nation.

As China’s political and economic influence in the world is rapidly increasing, it is essential to understand how China’s domestic politics affects its foreign political and economic policy. This book offers an accessible, informative and up-to-date systemic analysis of the foreign policy of China. Where mainstream literature on international relations usually suggests that China’s foreign policy is primarily determined by external factors, such as the international system and external settings, this book demonstrates instead that domestic factors profoundly shape China’s foreign policy from the late Mao’s era to the reform era. It demonstrates how China’s foreign policy is driven by the preservation of political and economic regimes; the political survival of the top leader; the top leader’s vision for, and skills in, managing external affairs; the leader’s policy priorities; dramatic events and the process of policymaking. It presents its argument in-depth analysis of major cases of Chinese foreign policy – for example, China’s difficult relations with Southeast Asia; China’s 15-year accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO); China’s oil diplomacy in the recent decade, and the diversified process of foreign policy making in the twenty-first century. Hongyi Lai is a lecturer at School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham, UK. He is author of Reform and the Non-State Economy in China: The Political Economy of Liberalization Strategies ; the editor of Asian Energy Security: The Maritime Dimension ; and co-editor of Harmony and Development: ASEAN-China Relations and China into the Hu-Wen Era: Policy Initiatives and Challenges. Part 1: Analytical Framework 1. Introduction: Bringing Back Domestic Politics in Studies of Foreign Policy 2. Internal Sources of External Policy: An Analytical Framework Part 2: Cases of China’s Foreign Policy 3. Domestic Regimes and Leaders’ Vision: Relations with Southeast Asia 4. Leadership Succession, Priority, Debates, and Shocks: WTO Accession 5. Managing Domestic-External Interaction: China-U.S. WTO Agreement 6. Securing Strategic Resources for Domestic Economy: Oil Diplomacy 7. Institutions and Players: Diversified Policy Making Process Part 3: Conclusion 8. Understanding a Rising China

This book celebrates the 15th anniversary of China–ASEAN dialogue, which has captured the limelight as a key development in international relations in the Asia-Pacific. The contributions discuss a wide range of complex and challenging issues concerning ASEAN–China relations in a readable, informative, concise and comprehensive way. In three parts, the volume begins with an introduction and three speeches. The second and third parts discuss the political, security and economic aspects of ASEAN–China relations. Some of the specific issues covered in the book include China's rise and its implication on ASEAN, China's political and economic relations with ASEAN, and China's relations with Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines.