Western River Civilization and the Logic of China’s Strategic Behavior

This chapter addresses the geographic imbalance of China’s development. Whilst the coastal provinces are developing and looking outward, those of central and western China are underdeveloped and inwardly focused. This disparity is a Chinese domestic strategic priority that, if unaddressed, threatens to destabilise China and the international system. The chapter nevertheless argues that China is historically a western rivers civilisation that is capable of surmounting—and indeed compelled to overcome—the imbalance. The chapter employs unique Chinese methods and concepts of international relations, history and culture to depict a quintessentially Chinese—rather than Western—strategic approach.https://www.routledge.com/products/9780415707343