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Dr. Joseph T.
Lee looks at the
current
development of
the
Sino-American
encounter in the
Third World.
During the
Maoist and the
Dengist era,
China was
responding to
the
international
pressures from
the United
States and the
Soviet Union
rather than
dealing with the
Third World
countries per
se. But since
the launching of
the War on
Terror in 2001,
the American
military
expansion into
Iraq and
Afghanistan
completely
changed China’s
diplomatic
priorities.
Beijing has
begun to pursue
an active policy
of engaging many
Third World
countries in
order to
undermine the
U.S.-dominated
international
order. This
development
reflects the
current Chinese
government’s
rhetoric about
the peaceful
rise of China,
meaning that a
powerful China
will not
threaten its
Asian neighbors
as the Western
imperialists had
done in the
past.
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