Leiden University Student Repository

Bore Øverland, Mari (2015)

Conditionality in China’s Foreign Policy: Analysis of Two Case Studies Norway and Africa

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

China claims to be one of the main followers and protectors of the principles of non-interference and sovereignty. It often invokes these principles either in order to protect itself from interference from Western states, or to defend its alternative approach to aid engagement in African countries (Pang 244-245). However, China also violates the principle of non-interference by putting conditions on other countries’ internal affairs, such as demanding that the government does not support issues that China is against, in return for its continued bilateral cooperation. Therefore, China’s foreign policy approaches and especially its use of conditionality seem contradicting. Such contradicting foreign policy approaches can be challenging to understand and counter for other states if the motivations are not known. The academic debate on China’s use of conditionality and foreign policy in general has failed to take into account a wide enough range of foreign policy approaches, something I...Show moreChina claims to be one of the main followers and protectors of the principles of non-interference and sovereignty. It often invokes these principles either in order to protect itself from interference from Western states, or to defend its alternative approach to aid engagement in African countries (Pang 244-245). However, China also violates the principle of non-interference by putting conditions on other countries’ internal affairs, such as demanding that the government does not support issues that China is against, in return for its continued bilateral cooperation. Therefore, China’s foreign policy approaches and especially its use of conditionality seem contradicting. Such contradicting foreign policy approaches can be challenging to understand and counter for other states if the motivations are not known. The academic debate on China’s use of conditionality and foreign policy in general has failed to take into account a wide enough range of foreign policy approaches, something I attempt to do in my paper.Show less

China

Norway

Foreign Policy

Conditionality

Africa

Author

Bore Øverland, Mari

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Wang, J.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en