Foreign Policy Of The People's Republic Of China To The United Nations

Embedding in the mainstream constructivism, the dissertation aims to analyze China'sforeign policy on the United Nations, and to defend the theoretical hypothesis thatChina and UN construct the cultural structure, namely the shared idea, throughinteractions, and this specific cultural structure, in return, constructs China's nationalidentity, interests and foreign policy. The dissertation takes a constructivist approachfrom three analyzing levels: "the international system", "the bilateral system ofactors" and "the internal system of actor", and by this, identifies the factors of thecultural structure affecting China's foreign policy on UN. In addition, on the basis ofthe above static theoretical framework, the dissertation sets up a dynamic evolutionmodel, which provides a concise quantitative method with the utility of predictingdiplomatic behaviors.The dissertation divides China's interactions with UN into three stages. At the firststage, from 1949 to 1971, China took the sovereignty interests as the driving forcebehind its foreign policy on UN. At the second stage, from1972 to 1989, theinteraction between China and UN stepped onto the normal track, and the interests ofdevelopment became an important index of China's foreign policy. In the post 1989ear, China formed good relations with UN, and gave an overall consideration upon itsrole in all the UN's functions with an attitude of accountability.In the part of the empirical justification, the dissertation argues that the initialinteractions between China and UN in the 1950s and 1960s, especially in the KoreanWar, formed a culture of enemy between them. With an identity of the "RevolutionarySocialist Country", China was mainly in a conflicting relationship with UN. In the1970s and 1980s, the cultures between China and UN at each level were eased upgradually, which led to China's normalization of relations with UN. As "the biggestdeveloping country", China viewed UN as an "instrument". In the 1990s, based on"normative cooperation", China constituted an "institutional environment" with UN,which benefited both sides. With UN's encouragement, China is, as a "responsiblegreat power", constructing a "collective identity" with UN.In the part of the case study, the dissertation argues that the ideational factorsdetermine China's behavior in UN Peacekeeping Operations, and there is a tendencythat China is shifting its role from a "participant" to a "rule-setter".