China’s New Foreign and Security Policy Dynamics

February 9, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Mānoa Campus, East-West Center Research Program, Burns Hall, Room 3012

China’s New Foreign and Security Policy Dynamics


Dr. Masayuki Masuda

Professor and Senior Fellow
National Institute for Defense Studies, Tokyo, Japan


Tuesday, February 9, 2016 12:00 noon to 1:00pm
John A. Burns Hall, Room 3012 (3rd floor)

China’s rise as a quasi-superpower represents the most important change in the international system in the 21st century. China is now widely viewed as the de facto strategic rival of the United States, and constituting a potential challenger to the U.S. global supremacy, in particular in the Asia-Pacific region. Many observers have described Chinese diplomacy as newly and increasing assertive in the wake of rising tension in the South China Sea. How should we understand the “new” assertiveness? Some have argued influence of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) accounts for the new assertive or tougher posture China adopted in the late of 2000s. How reliable are this explanation about the foreign and security policy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC)? When we try to have a clear grasp of current dynamics of foreign and security policy in China, a close watch should be kept on Chinese domestic politics in the Xi Jinping era as well as its international environment. What effect does a change in the political structure in Beijing have on the PRC external behavior?


Masayuki Masuda is a professor and senior fellow at the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS) in Tokyo. He is currently a visiting scholar at the East-West Center and a visiting professor at Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS). He teaches and writes about issues in Asia-Pacific security, Chinese foreign and security policy, and Sino-Japanese relations. In 2001-2002, he was a visiting fellow at Shanghai University. There he conducted independent research on Chinese foreign policy. From 2008 to 2010, Masuda was a lecturer at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and Keiai University, where he taught courses on international relations, security studies, Chinese politics and Sino-Japanese relations.


Event Sponsor
East-West Center, Research Program, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Anna Tanaka, 944-7607, tanakaa@eastwestcenter.org

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