Empirical Studies in International Mediation

This analysis of 414 selected votes in four major issue areas in the UN General Assembly in the period 1971 to 1978 attempts to define Chinces policy toward Third World nations in the context of its voting toward Communist and Western bloc nations. The basic findings are: 1) China was much more favorable to the developing nations than to the West, and a little more favorable to the Third World than to the Communist bloc; 2) Among the four regions of the Third World, China was most friendly to the Middle East, least amenable to Latin America, and friendlier to Africa than Asia; 3) Chinese attitudes toward the Third World and its regions largely reflected a combined influence of national age, size and wealth, with wealth generally the most important consideration; 4) While economic considerations dominated Chinese votes, concern over national independence and security of new developing nations also guided Chinese foreign policy to a large extent.