How are Foreign Policy Decisions Made in China?

Linda Jakobson and Ryan Manuel

Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies from Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University

Abstract: The growing number of actors involved in China's international activities has led to fractured authority in foreign policy decision-making. Actors vie for the attention of senior officials to promote their interests on any specific issue. As a result, decision making is often a slow process; there are multiple channels of information, and actors appeal to public opinion to support their claims. Since 2012, Xi Jinping has taken charge of all foreign policy related decision-making bodies in what appears to be an attempt to improve coordination of interest groups. A slight shift to a more personified foreign policy than during the Hu or Jiang eras has also taken place. In this paper, we describe how foreign policy decisions should be made in China according to formal rules; next, we take into account the reality of how the Chinese political system deals with China's evolving international role. We conclude by assessing the risks of fragmentation, on the one hand, and Xi's efforts to recentralise foreign policy, on the other hand.

Keywords: Chinese foreign policy; Xi Jinping administration; foreign policy decision-making; Chinese foreign policy actors; Chinese political system; Chinese political fragmentation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 9 pages
Date: 2016-02-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-cna and nep-pol
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Published in Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, Jan 2016, pages 98-107

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