China in International Society Since 1949

China's rise to power in the twentieth century has been accompanied by its strenuous efforts to enter the international society. This study reinterprets China's international relations in the second half of the century by looking at China's alienation from and integration into international society. It starts by refuting the conventional wisdom that China was in revolutionary isolation from 1949 to 1970. It contends that alienation, rather than isolation, best describes China's anomalous position in the international society in the period. The study investigates the process in which a convergence of views has happened between China and other member states on key institutions such as war and peace and revolution and development in the international system. This convergence, it is argued, has in the last decade led to China's consent, sometimes reluctant and sometimes problematic, to common rules and institutions in conducting international relations. The incorporation of China into the existing global international society has found more eloquent expression in the unprecedented economic integration of China with the world economy in the last fifteen years. It argues, however, that China's unfinished long march in this century towards its full integration into international society continues to present a daunting challenge to the post-Cold War international order.