Research On The Evolution Of Australian Foreign Policy Toward China And Influencing Factors

Australia is a more influential nation in South Pacific Ocean, which lies between Asia, North America and Latin America. Australian strategic location and active participation in international affairs not only promote its international status increasingly, but also strengthen the impact on the achievement of China's good-neighbor diplomatic policy. Its hostile or friendly policies toward China are bound to have a greater impact on their interest and the Asia-Pacific situation. It will not only affect the achievement of win-win between Australia and China, but also promote or constrain the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. Therefore, since the 21st century, Australian foreign policy toward China has attracted attention both at home and abroad, especially after Kevin Rudd, the new Australian Prime Minister took office in December 2007, whose dual cultural background has aroused the concern at home and abroad, the prospects for Australian foreign policy toward china has become a hotspot in academia.The subject of this thesis is the evolution of Australian foreign policy toward china and its influencing factors. To sum up, since World War II, Australian foreign policy toward china has been evolving, from hostility and containment to establishment of diplomatic relations, and then to a pragmatic, rational attitude. However, the relations between Australia and china have gone through several hard times at the mainstream of development from time to time, and shown different characteristics at different times. In the evolution of the policy, there are a lot of influencing factors, including international factors and domestic factors, of which the US factor and the pursuit of economic interest play a major role.The thesis is divided into four parts:The first part, as an introduction, mainly introduces the subject of this study and its value in theory and in practice, presents the current research situation of the subject, discusses the train of thought of the study, and finally makes clear the whole writing arrangement.The second part mainly discusses the origin and evolution Australian policy toward China during the Cold War .This section is divided into two parts: the first part reviews Australia's external strategy post-World War II; the second one analyze the stage of evolution and features of the policy toward China during the Cold War.The third part studies the adjustment and development of the Australian policy toward China post-Cold War. This section studies the evolution of the Australian policy toward China after end of the Cold War, divided into five stages, and forecast the Kevin Rudd government's foreign policy trend in the politics, economic spheres, security domain and cultural, scientific spheres.The forth part analyze the international and domestic influencing factors of Australian foreign policy toward China. It analyzes the impact of the factors, such as the changes of international configuration, the US factor, Japan factor, the Taiwan issue, Chinese surrounding strategy and diplomatic thoughts, the pursuit of economic interest, differences of ideology and cultural values, political parties' policy trends, and at last forecasts the development of them in future.