The PRC's changing moral and realist perceptions toward territorial disputes

Cultural and institutional norms shape stare identity which in turn determi nes a country's national security definition and foreign policy. rn order t o understand the national security and foreign policy of the People's Repub lic of China (PRC), we must examine the perception of the Chinese in intern ational affairs. The PRC has longstanding boundary disputes with the former Soviet Union/Russia and India, and maritime territorial disputes with Japa n and Southeast Asian countries. Chinese resentment against past imperialis t aggression, and conceptions of what is right or natural as part of their political world-view and diplomatic discourse, must therefore be taken into account in assessing the PRC's policy, reward neighbors. This paper argues that different territorial disputes truth different countries took on diff erent saliency at different times, depending on how the PRC leadership defi ned and redefined ifs national interest. This redefinition, moreover, accor ds with the reordering of the state's norms and identify-from being a revol utionary/power promoting a world ideology, to an Asian power reorienting to ward regional interests to a prospective world power tentatively participat ing in multilateral cooperation. As such, while some disputes are settled o r rendered irrelevant as ideological considerations. national identity and interest definitions change, others are magnified or new disputes may even appear.