a greater impact on its development, China has been active in dealing with its neighbors but largely absent in global politics.The preceding example also exemplfies China's relatively new involvement in multilateral foreign policy. In this age of globalization, China has become increasingly receptive to multilateral diplomacy especially in economic matters. There are several developments that have caused this shift in perception. First, China has come to the realization that the world has changed since the end of the Cold War. Economically, the countries of Asia have become more interdependent than ever, causing a need for "more standardization and coordination of economic activities" (J. Wang p. 82). Instability is detrimental for business so there exists a strong incentive to maintain regional stability by taking collective measures against possible trouble areas such as Cambodia, the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea" (Wang p. 82). China sees the world changing from a unipolar world immediately following the Cold War to a multipolar world. It is only natural that in a multipolar world, conflict resolution is most effective with a mutlilateral system (J. Wang p. 91 and Deng p. 55). Under these conditions, economic and security multilateral forums like ARF, ASEAN, Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT), etc. have sprung up or gained in significance. Being neighbors with an ASEAN that is highly supportive of a multilateral security framework also puts pressure on Beijing to participate (Roy p. 179). Several implications follow. China has to a certain extent involved itself in multilateralism because it does not want to be left out in shaping the new world order (Chirstensen p. 245). Another words, to prevent from being acted upon, China has taken to be one of the actors. Ironically, China may also see an inherent advantage in multilateralism that her neighbors use against China. While China's neighbors see multilateralism...
