The new growing paradigm of Chinese security perspective

Throughout history, Chinese international behavior suggests that security calculations have remained and continue to be an inherent force in the minds of Chinese foreign policy decision-makers. Since China launched its open-door policy in 1979, the way the Chinese think and assess the field has significantly changed. Today, the once widely supported realist approach is being rejected by a growing body of Chinese experts who now view the world as increasingly interdependent in both economic and security terms. This paper shows how the Chinese perspective on security issues has diversified and significantly transformed into a more interdependent viewpoint. Despite general skepticism over whether China has learned the inevitability of state sovereignty infringement in the globalization age, Chinese analysts came to understand and believe in the necessity of the security regime and multilateralism in the post-Cold War period. The “new security concept” exemplified the development of the mutual security in the late 1990s. Whether the Chinese design based on the new idea will be realized is unclear, given the present security structure dominated by the U.S.-alliance system. However, the new growing paradigm of the Chinese security perspective might play an important role in the process of building multilateral security institutions and regimes in the region, and participation and influence might be China's intention as a responsible regional power