Regional Geopolitical Challenges and Doctrine of China's Peaceful Rise

This article aims to explain regional challenges facing the realization of the doctrine of China's peaceful rise with an emphasis on geopolitical difficulties. The declaration of the doctrine of peaceful rise as the grand strategy of China's foreign policy in 2003, aimed at dominating "threat perception" and establishing regional stability as a prerequisite for China's economic growth and development, is the main axis of Beijing's diplomatic activities in the beginning of the new millennium. This article poses the question of why geopolitical challenges in the East Asia are the most important obstacle to the realization of the goals of the doctrine of China's peaceful rise. The authors, using an explanatory–analytical method, believe that contrary to geo- economic and geo- cultural challenges which have been managed efficiently by Chinese officials, the field of geopolitics has the greatest potential for strengthening "threat perception" of regional countries regarding China due to its complexity and its relation to power politics. The article explains "threat perception" and the doctrine of peaceful rise as well as indicates challenges facing the realization of this doctrine.