A Chinese water resources policy has a decisive influence in Asia because China is located upstream in relation to international rivers that are the major available water resources. This paper considers the Chinese foreign policies regarding the international rivers and compares the relationship between China and Kazakhstan, Russia and India with its relationship with the Mekong River basin countries from the point of view of “conflict- prevention mechanism.” The common point of these four countries and a region is permanent joint organization that has built confidence through regular meetings and exchanges of information and data. However, China has different mechanisms with Kazakhstan and Russia located in the north, and with India and the Mekong River basin countries located in the south. Furthermore, China asserts its sovereignty over territory and it has different recognition over the conflict of international rivers. The relations between China and Kazakhstan, in particular, has been progressing because of other factors including border security and an oil resource problem. In any case, China takes a “bilateral approach,” not a “multilateral approach” covering all the countries involved in the international river basin development. Therefore, the multilateral approach is the next research challenge.

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