It is, of course, a matter of judgment whether or not one believes the current international situation is, as the Chinese put it, one characterized by a great disorder on earth—“the wind sweeping through the tower heralds a rising storm in the mountains.” But the general trends seem to be quite clear: a disintegration of the cold war coalitions, the emergence of nonsecurity issues as die essence of international politics, and a change toward new power configurations. In such a transitional context the current Chinese posture in international politics seems to be based on one of self-assured “providential statesmanship” exploiting all the possibilities in the “great disorder under heaven.”