Evolution of Balancing Strategy in China's foreign policy; a research into three distinct time periods of tributary system (1300-1800), Cold war (1947-1991) and post-cold war era (1991-2021)

By examining China's foreign policy behavior throughout history, it can be seen that the country's continued military, political, economic and cultural dominance in East Asia, cannot be explained by balance of power theory which considers one state's hegemony over others throughout international system as unsustainable. In this regard, the present essay raises this question that what is the position of the balancing strategy in China's foreign policy in the three time periods of the tributary system, Cold War and the post-Cold War era? In response to this question, the current essay, using T.V Paul's theoretical understanding of balance of power theory, presents this hypothesis that during the supremacy of the tributary system over the East Asian region, China, first by leveraging its large market and vast economic capacities discouraged other political units in East Asia from pursuing balancing strategy against herself, and secondly, by pursuing a wedge strategy against other units neutralized others' possible aims to form an anti-Chinese alliance. During the Cold War, China, suffering from an underdeveloped and backward economy, had no choice but to pursue hard balancing against its foreign threats, first United States and then the Soviet Union. finally, In the post-Cold War era, with the resurgence of China's position in the world economy, the Communist Party, utilizing Chinese economic capabilities, made the advancement of the soft variant of balancing strategy as a priority of the People's Republic's foreign policy.