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The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Volume II - 2010 Sitthiphon Kruarattikan 37 Public Opinion and the Limit of China’s “Peaceful Rise” Sitthiphon Kruarattikan Ph.D. Candidate (Integrated Science), College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Thammasat University Abstract Public opinion has played an important role in the making of Chinese foreign policy since Deng Xiaoping’s institution of economic reform in 1978. Chinese citizens, with the coming of commercialized media and information technology, have more latitude to express their own views on international affairs, which are sometimes different from those held by the authorities. Therefore, it is difficult for the Chinese leadership to get the people to conform to official foreign policy orthodoxy, including the concept of “Peaceful Rise” propagated by the Chinese Communist Party and the government. Emotional outbursts during the anti-American and anti-Japanese protests in 1999 and 2005 respectively reminds us that China’s “Peaceful Rise” has been challenged by the violence and anger of its own people. Key words: Public opinion, foreign policy, China, Peaceful Rise Introduction At the Boao Forum for Asia in China’s Hainan province in November 2003, Zheng Bijian, former vice president of the Central Party School and one of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) leading thinkers and writers on ideological questions, proposed the concept of “Peaceful Rise” by stating that China at the beginning of the 21 st century faced two major problems: one concerned multiplication. Multiplied by 1.3 billion, any social or economic problem, no matter how small it is, will become a huge problem. The second one concerned division. Divided by 1.3 billion, China’s resources, no matter how abundant they are, will be at extremely low per capita levels. As a result, in order to achieve its development goals, China had no choice but to take part in economic globalization, pursue a road of independent development, and adhere to peace and never seek hegemony (Zheng