lism as demonstrated by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty issue. China has realized that nuclear proliferation threatens world and national security (Hu p. 121). Consequently, the pursuit of egalitarianism in international relations is not worth this risk. Beijing has shifted from opposing the Non-Proliferation Treaty to genuinely supporting its cause. However, it seems that the majority of China's new involvement in multilateralism results from Beijing's desire to balance US bilateralism with Japan (Christensen p. 248) and the need to ease the transition into a global power by allaying its neighbors fears. Yong Deng argues that China sees growing multilateral networks through a "state-centric prism, focusing only on how China could take advantage of these new 'external environments' to protect and maximize its national interests (Deng p. 52). In that case, China has not really undergone any fundamental change in perceptions but rather just a tactical shift (Christensen p. 248). Instead, bilateral relations remain the default. There are several reasons that account for this tendency. First, China has not had a positive experience with multilateral diplomacy because it was of the first targets of UN collective security when the Korean War broke out (Wang p. 74). The United States was allowed to operate its armed forces under the UN flag and the US influenced UN General assembly adopted a resolution that "recommended all states embargo strategic and military material to China" (Wang p. 75). China has therefore cast a wary eye on all multilateral collective security.Second, China still prefers security matters especially internal matters remain bilateral and not 'internationalized' because China really does not have any direct threats from the outside at least in the near-intermediate future. For the first time since the Opium War in the 1840's, China faces no direct military threats. Instead, China sees internal problems such...
