ABSTRACT
The development of the foreign policy of the People's Republic of China after that government was established on October 1, 1949, has been characterized by some major shifts and changes in the country's role in world affairs. These changes were made in accordance with the domestic situation in China and in the context of changes in the international system in which the PRC found itself after its emergence in 1949. The foreign policy of any country is not formulated or executed in a vacuum, and a country has to develop its foreign policy in the light of certain basic factors such as the geopolitical realities of the region in which it is located, its quest for security, its needs and urges for economic development, and its ideological affinity. An analysis of China's foreign policy will indicate that certain basic objectives have governed it from its inception. The technique and modus operandi for attaining these objectives have varied from time to time with changing circumstances both at home and abroad, but the basic objectives have remained the same. China's quest for security, ideological background and affinity, need for economic development, and support and sympathy for the Asian peoples under colonial or semicolonial rule have always determined that country's foreign policy.
