Evolution Of East Asian Political Landscape Of Post-Cold War Period And The Strategic Considerations Of China

The international environment and the social situation in East Asia have changed profoundly during the post-cold war era. Chinese economy has experienced a sharp rising, Japan is turning into a political power and the United States has declared of returning to the Asia-pacific in a high profile. The multi-polarization trend in East Asia is becoming more and more evident; the new political situation in East Asia is under construction and combination. Among all the factors that affect the above changes that has been mentioned, the closeness of some big powers’ inter-relationship, such as the Sino-U.S relation, the Sino-Japanese relation, the Sino-Russian relation and the US-Japan relation and other big powers, as well as the peaceful rising of Chinese economy are more crucial. A peaceful and stable surrounding environment has to be guaranteed if China, a traditional power in East Asia, wants to gain stable and rapid development. However, China’s situation in East Asia is not that stable due to some historical issues, the territorial waters dispute and the nuclear proliferation crisis. Thus, it’s of great importance not only for China itself but also the whole East Asian for China to build a system of East Asia strategy.China needs to use the analysis of International strategy theory to set an effective East Asia strategy. According to the theory, an effective international strategy is based on a full assessment of a country’s national strategic resource. This paper analyzed China’s national interests and strategic resources in East Asia, and got the following conclusions:in East Asia, China has a wide range of political interests, economic and security interests, and a superior status in human resources, natural resources, economic power, military and diplomatic resources. Thus, in order to deal with the current complex and changeable situation in East Asia, China should develop a complete set of East Asia strategy from four aspects:politic, economy, security, and culture. Firstly(the political aspect),China should attach importance to the development of the relations between big powers, build common interests and work together to build a harmonious atmosphere in East Asia; Secondly(the economic aspect),China should participate in the East Asia Free Trade Area actively and integrate into the regional system to strengthen the bilateral and multilateral trade and economic cooperation; Thirdly(the security aspect),China should strengthen the non-traditional security cooperation with East Asian countries and promote the establishment of the East Asian security mechanism; last but not least(the cultural aspect),China should enhance the cooperation and cultural exchanges between non-governmental and inter-East Asian governments, improve the quality of citizens, remodel the Chinese values, and establish the image of a responsible country. Only if the various aspects been considered, a proactive strategy for East Asia can be set successfully, and then a favorable region environment can be realized for the healthy development of China.