The deluge of scholarly research on China's imputed grand strategy and future foreign policy behavior produced during the past decade presents a plethora of mostly single-factor explanations. Past and future PRC behavior is attributed to ideology, leader's proclivities, historical determinism, or one or a few other 'key determinants.' This book—over forty years in the making—challenges essentialist explanations that tend to homogenize PRC policies across time, space, and issue arenas. Thomas Fingar draws from his extensive experience as a top scholar of US-China Relations and senior State Department and Intelligence official to peer into the black box of decision making in Beijing. Fingar identifies and explains recurring patterns and discontinuities in Beijing's continuing quest for security and economic growth. China's goals are pursued simultaneously but prioritized differently depending on Beijing's assessment and definition of the international situation and domestic developments. Fingar concludes that PRC policy is more stable and predictable than typically understood, and that major alterations are triggered more by domestic developments than the actions of the United States or another country. In presenting a sweeping interpretation of Chinese foreign policy, this book is a valuable resource for teachers and students of contemporary China, international relations, and American diplomatic history.