| This paper examines the future of Chinese foreign policy by analyzing China's involvement in the conflict over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The Spratly Islands are located in the South China Sea and are claimed, in part or in whole, by Vietnam, Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei. China's actions are constrained only by general international pressures and not by targeted actions by Japan or the US. This is important because, in the future, China will be much less suspectable to pressure from these major powers. How China acts in the Spratly Islands, where it has the preponderance of power, is indicative of how China will act once it has become a major international power.;In order to understand China's actions in the Spratly Island this paper looks at the Spratly Island conflict itself and then analyzes China's claim to the islands under international law, looks at China's need for resources and how this influences its drive into the Spratlys, explores China' s military power, and examines China's regional relationships in order to understand how they constrain China's advance into the South China Sea. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
