China’s Periphery Policy

During the Cold War period China remained concerned with what it perceived at that time as the Soviet activism in Asia and therefore, disintegration of the erstwhile USSR played a decisive role in the improvement of China’s external environment, both in terms of its neighbourhood as well as securing a favourable balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region. Consequently, changes in the global geopolitical and regional geostrategic environment surrounding China’s northern neighbour Mongolia, coupled with the open door policies of both Beijing and Ulaanbaatar, set the tone for the improvement of their hitherto strained bilateral and multilateral ties. It is in this context that this article analyses post-Cold War developments in the Chinese policy towards its neighbours or what it calls as its ‘periphery’ countries and its implications for Sino-Mongolian relations, particularly in the political, economic and strategic realms. It highlights, among other things, that Beijing’s neighbourhood policy as applied to its relations with Mongolia seems to be advantageous, both economically as well as strategically, for strengthening China’s growing role as an Asian power.