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.