PRC INTERESTS AND OBJECTIVES IN THE 1990s

• Promoting a "peaceful international environment": the salience of domestic economic success.

• Securing China's borders.

• "Opening to the outside world" (kaifang): interdependence and self-reliance; catching up with the "four little dragons."

• Preserving the one-party system: neo-authoritarianism.

• Assertively backing Chinese sovereignty in Asia Pacific.

• Modernizing the military within the context of comprehensive security.

• Promoting an alternative world view to "hegemonism": the five principles.