Foreign policy of China
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The People's Republic of China is a
Communist state A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Comi ...
that came to power in 1949 after a civil war. After the
Korean war , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
in 1950-1953 and the
Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the China, People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by Doctrine, doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications ...
in the 1960s, China emerged as a
great power A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power in ...
and one of the three big players in the tri-polar geopolitics (PRC-US-USSR) during the late Cold war (1956-1991) with its status as a recognized nuclear weapons state in 1960s. Currently, China has the world's largest population, second largest GDP (nominal) (after the U.S.) and the largest economy in the world by PPP. China is now considered an emerging global superpower. In 1950-1953 it fought an undeclared war in Korea against the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Until the late 1950s it was allied with the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
but by 1960 they began a bitter contest for control over the local Communist movement in many countries. It reached détente with the United States in 1972. After CCP Chairman
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
died in 1976,
Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CCP ...
led a massive process of industrialization and emphasized trade relations with the world, while maintaining a low key, less ideological foreign policy, widely described by the phrase ''taoguang yanghui'', or "hide one's talent and bide one's time". The
Chinese economy The China, People's Republic of China has an upper middle income Developing country, developing Mixed economy, mixed socialist market economy that incorporates economic planning through Industrial policy, industrial policies and strategic Five- ...
grew very rapidly giving it steadily increasing power and ambition. Since
Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...
assumed to
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party The general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party () is the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 1989, the CCP general secretary has been the paramount leader ...
in 2012, China has expanded its foreign policy ambitions on the global scale, with special emphasis on the East China Sea. China is investing heavily in global infrastructure, citing a desire for
economic integration Economic integration is the unification of economic policies between different states, through the partial or full abolition of tariff and non-tariff restrictions on trade. The trade-stimulation effects intended by means of economic integrati ...
. It is also investing in strategic locations to secure its trade and security interests. It calls these programs "
One Belt, One Road The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or B&R), formerly known as One Belt One Road ( zh, link=no, 一带一路) or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 150 ...
" and the "
Maritime Silk Road The Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route is the Maritime history, maritime section of the historic Silk Road that connected Southeast Asia, China, the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian peninsula, Somalia, Egypt and Europe. It began by the 2n ...
", which it sees as part of its goal of self-sufficiency. In the 2019, the Pew Research Center made a survey on attitude to Xi Jinping among six-country medians based on Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines and South Korea. The survey indicated that a median 29% have confidence in Xi Jinping to do the right thing regarding world affairs, meanwhile a median of 45% have no confidence. These number are almost same with those of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (23% confidence, 53% no confidence). Since 2017 it has engaged in a large-scale
trade war A trade war is an economic conflict often resulting from extreme protectionism in which states raise or create tariffs or other trade barriers against each other in response to trade barriers created by the other party. If tariffs are the exclus ...
with the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. It is also challenging U.S. dominance in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, expanding its military naval and diplomatic efforts. Part of this is the String of Pearls strategy securing strategic locations in the Indian Ocean and
Strait of Malacca The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
region.


Foreign policy institutions

The main institutions of foreign policy are the
Central Foreign Affairs Commission The Central Foreign Affairs Commission is a commission of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that exercises general oversight on matters related to foreign affairs. It is currently chaired by CCP General Secretary and P ...
of the
Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
(CCP), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the CCP International Liaison Department, and the CCP
United Front Work Department The United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (UFWD; ) is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which is officially tasked with "united front work". For this endeav ...
. The Central Foreign Affairs Leadership Small Group (FALSG) has historically been a semi-institutional foreign policy coordination body. Created in 1958, it was disbanded during the Cultural Revolution and restored in 1981 as
Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CCP ...
increased the number of stakeholders involved in the development of foreign policy. It became a forum for the central leadership in charge of foreign policy to meet regularly with top bureaucrats to discuss priorities, achieve consensus, and prepare recommendations for the Politburo. It was the only standing foreign policy coordination body until the aftermath of the United States-led
NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade On May 7, 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (Operation Allied Force), five U.S. Joint Direct Attack Munition guided bombs hit the People's Republic of China embassy in the Belgrade district of New Belgrade, killing three Chinese state ...
, which prompted the creation of the Central National Security Leadership Small Group (NSLSG) in 2000 to coordinate national security crisis response. To address policy coordination on maritime issues, Hu Jintao created The Protecting Maritime Rights and Interests LSG in 2012.


Long-term goals

Political scientist Dmitry Shlapentokh argues that CCP leader
Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...
and his top leadership are developing plans for global predominance based on rapidly growing economic power. The ideological framework is a specialized blend of Marxist–Leninism, coupled with China's pre-1800 historic claims to world dominance. China's trade policy and drive for access to essential natural resources, such as gas, are articulated in terms of these ideological approaches. Beijing balances both purely economic goals with geopolitical strategies regarding the United States, Russia and other powers. Balancing those two powers gives China a clear advantage, for its totalitarian government could plan for generations and could change course regardless of the wishes of the electorate or clearly defined interest groups, as is the case with the modern capitalist West. Lowell Dittmer argues that in dealing with the goal of dominance over East Asia, Beijing has to juggle its relations with the United States, which has more military and economic power in the region because of close U.S. ties with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia and other countries. Regarding the Middle East, where the United States has staked out a major position, China is tentatively moving in a much smaller scale. Analysts argue that Beijing is not yet ready to become a major force in shaping regional politics. Since the late 1990s, China has articulated its new security concept, the overarching principle of which is that no single state, even the most powerful, is capable of coping with all security challenges alone. China has shown a moderate interest in the Caribbean region in recent years, but not nearly on the same scale as its interest in Asia and Africa. It has been developing ties with Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as well as Colombia. These small countries have not by 2019 noticeably changed their foreign or domestic policies because of their new economic linkages with China. Nevertheless, the governments pay more attention to Beijing's views. On the other hand, China's push into the Caribbean is increasingly resented by the United States and further escalation between the two major powers is a possibility in the region. In 2014, Xi announced the New Asian Security Concept at a summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building in Asia (CICA). Implying that Asian countries can handle their security without the involvement of the United States, the core of the New Asian Security Concept is that "Asian issues should be taken care of by Asians, and Asian security should be maintained by Asians."


Wolf warrior diplomacy

Wolf warrior diplomacy is an aggressive style of coercive diplomacy adopted by Chinese diplomats under
Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...
's
administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...
. Wolf warrior diplomacy is confrontational and combative, with its proponents loudly denouncing any perceived criticism of the
Chinese government The Government of the People's Republic of China () is an authoritarian political system in the People's Republic of China under the exclusive political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It consists of legislative, executive, m ...
and its policies on social media and in interviews. As an attempt to gain "discourse power" in international politics, wolf warrior diplomacy forms one part of a new foreign policy strategy called Xi Jinping's "Major Country Diplomacy" ( zh, c=大国外交, p=Dàguó Wàijiāo) which has legitimized a more active role for China on the world stage, including engaging in an open ideological struggle with the West.


Status of Taiwan

The People's Republic of China (PRC) considers
Taiwan area The free area of the Republic of China, also known as the "Taiwan Area of the Republic of China", "Tai-Min Area (Taiwan and Fujian)" or simply the "Taiwan Area", is a term used by the government of the Republic of China (ROC) to refer to ...
administered by Republic of China (ROC), part of its inviolable sovereign territory. The ROC was founded in Mainland China in 1912 deposing the Chinese monarchy while Taiwan was under Japanese rule from 1895 and regained in 1945, but Taiwan became the seat of the ROC central government since 1949 and later lost its international representation as "China" in the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
in 1971 to the PRC. Along with the ROC, in PRC's perspective, Taiwan is described a separatist, breakaway
province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
that must be reunified, by force if necessary. Under the
One China The term One China may refer to one of the following: * The One China principle is the position held by the People's Republic of China (PRC) that there is only one sovereign state under the name China, with the PRC serving as the sole legit ...
policy, any polity exerts efforts for countries recognizing either the PRC or ROC to switch their recognition to the other. The PRC has passed the controversial
Anti-Secession Law The Anti-Secession Law () is a law of the People's Republic of China, passed by the 3rd Session of the 10th National People's Congress. It was ratified on March 14, 2005, and went into effect immediately. President Hu Jintao promulgated th ...
authorizing the use of military force in the event of unilateral separatist activity by the Democratic Progressive Party-led
Pan-Green coalition The pan-Green coalition, pan-Green force or pan-Green groups is a nationalist political coalition in Taiwan (Republic of China), consisting of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP), Taiwan Solidarity Union ...
, as outlined in .


South China Sea

China has staked its territorial claims in the disputed
South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phi ...
with the Nine-Dash Line. Its claims are disputed by other countries. The contested area in the South China Sea includes the
Paracel Islands The Paracel Islands, also known as the Xisha Islands () and the Hoang Sa Archipelago ( vi, Quần đảo Hoàng Sa, lit=Yellow Sand Archipelago), are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. The archipelago includes about 130 small coral ...
, the
Spratly Islands The Spratly Islands ( fil, Kapuluan ng Kalayaan; zh, c=南沙群島/南沙群岛, s=, t=, p=Nánshā Qúndǎo; Malay, id, Kepulauan Spratly; vi, Quần đảo Trường Sa) are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed ...
, and various other areas including
Pratas Island Pratas Island,, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also known as the Tungsha Islands or the Dongsha Islands (), is a coral island situated in the northern part of the South China Sea administered as part of Cijin District, Kao ...
and the Vereker Banks, the
Macclesfield Bank Macclesfield Bank is an elongated sunken atoll of underwater reefs and shoals in the South China Sea. It lies east of the Paracel Islands, southwest of Pratas Island and north of the Spratly Islands. It is about long from southwest to northeast ...
and the
Scarborough Shoal Scarborough Shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc (in Spanish), Panatag Shoal ( fil, Kulumpol ng Panatag, lit=serene cluster), Huangyan Island ( Mandarin zh, c=黄岩岛, p=Huáng Yán Dǎo, l=yellow rock island), and Democracy Reef, are two ...
. The claim encompasses the area of Chinese land reclamation known as the " Great Wall of Sand". The
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
has conducted
freedom of navigation Freedom of navigation (FON) is a principle of law of the sea that ships flying the flag of any sovereign state shall not suffer interference from other states, apart from the exceptions provided for in international law. In the realm of internat ...
operations asserting its position that some waters claimed by China are
international waters The terms international waters or transboundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water (or their drainage basins) transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed region ...
. On July 12, 2016, an arbitral tribunal constituted under Annex VII to the 1982
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 167 c ...
ruled that China has no legal basis to claim "historic rights" within its nine-dash line in a case brought by the Philippines. The tribunal judged that there was no evidence that China had historically exercised exclusive control over the waters or resources within the Nine-Dash Line. The ruling was rejected by both Taiwan and China. The People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) stated that they did not recognize the tribunal and insisted that the matter should be resolved through bilateral negotiations with other claimants. However, the tribunal did not rule on the ownership of the islands or delimit maritime boundaries. Scholars have been probing the Chinese motivations and long-term expectations. One approach is to compare trends in multilateral Code of Conduct negotiations between 1992 and 2016. In general, the sovereignty issue regarding contested waters is no longer a central major concern For three reasons: the inconsistency of China's official claims over time, China's increased bargaining power, and the importance of the shelved sovereignty axiom since the era of Deng Xiaoping.Andy Yee, "Maritime territorial disputes in East Asia: a comparative analysis of the South China Sea and the East China Sea." ''Journal of Current Chinese Affairs'' 40.2 (2011): 165-193
Online
/ref>


See also

*
South China Sea disputes Territorial disputes in the South China Sea involve conflicting island and maritime claims in the region by several sovereign states, namely Brunei, the People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan (Republic of China/ROC), Indonesia, Malaysia, Ph ...
* Belt and Road Initiative *
Maritime Silk Road The Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route is the Maritime history, maritime section of the historic Silk Road that connected Southeast Asia, China, the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian peninsula, Somalia, Egypt and Europe. It began by the 2n ...
*
String of Pearls (Indian Ocean) The String of Pearls is a geopolitical hypothesis proposed by United States political researchers in 2004. The term refers to the network of Chinese military and commercial facilities and relationships along its sea lines of communication, whi ...
* Political status of Taiwan *
China and the United Nations China is one of the charter members of the United Nations and is one of five permanent members of its Security Council. One of the victorious Allies of the Second World War (the Chinese theatre of which was the Second Sino-Japanese War), the ...
*
History of foreign relations of China History of foreign relations of China covers diplomatic, military, political and economic relations in History of China from 1800 to the modern era. For the earlier period see Foreign relations of imperial China, and for the current foreign relat ...
* Community of Common Destiny * Old friends of the Chinese people


Notes


References


Further reading

*Alden, Christopher. '' China Returns to Africa: A Superpower and a Continent Embrace'' (2008) * Bajpai, Kanti, Selina Ho, and Manjari Chatterjee Miller, eds. ''Routledge Handbook of China–India Relations'' (Routledge, 2020)
excerpt
*Cohen, Warren I. '' America's Response to China: A History of Sino-American Relations'' (2010
excerpt and text search
* Fenby, Jonathan. ''The Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power 1850 to the Present'' (3rd ed. 2019) popular history. * Ferdinand, Peter. "Westward ho—the China dream and ‘one belt, one road’: Chinese foreign policy under Xi Jinping." ''International Affairs'' 92.4 (2016): 941-957
online
* Foot, Rosemary, and Amy King. "Assessing the deterioration in China–US relations: US governmental perspectives on the economic-security nexus." ''China International Strategy Review'' 1.1 (2019): 39-5
online
* Garver, John W. ''China's Quest: The History of the Foreign Relations of the People's Republic'' (2nd ed. 2018) comprehensive scholarly history
excerpt
* Garver, John W. ''Foreign relations of the People's Republic of China'' (1992
online
* Garver, John W. ''Protracted Contest: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the Twentieth Century'' (2001), post 1950. * Green, Michael J. ''By more than providence: Grand strategy and American power in the Asia Pacific since 1783'' (Columbia UP, 2017
online
* Hu, Weixing. "Xi Jinping's ‘Major Country Diplomacy’: The Role of Leadership in Foreign Policy Transformation." ''Journal of Contemporary China'' 28.115 (2019): 1-14. * Lampton, David M. ''Following the Leader: Ruling China, from Deng Xiaoping to Xi Jinping'' (U of California Press, 2014). * Liu, Guoli, ed.,
Chinese Foreign Policy in Transition
'' (Transaction, 2004). * Lu, Ning. ''The dynamics of foreign-policy decisionmaking in China'' (Routledge, 2018). * Quested, Rosemary K.I. ''Sino-Russian relations: a short history'' (Routledge, 2014
online
* Sutter, Robert G. ''Historical Dictionary of Chinese Foreign Policy'' (2011
excerpt and text search
*Sutter, Robert G. ''Foreign Relations of the PRC: The Legacies and Constraints of China's International Politics Since 1949'' (Rowman & Littlefield; 2013) 355 page
excerpt and text search
* Swaine, Michael D. "Chinese views of foreign policy in the 19th party congress." ''China Leadership Monitor'' 55 (2018).
online
re 2017 Congress *Westad, Odd Arne. ''Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750'' (Basic Books; 2012) 515 pages; comprehensive scholarly history *Yahuda, Michael. ''End of Isolationism: China's Foreign Policy After Mao'' (Macmillan International Higher Education, 2016) * Yea, Andy. "Maritime territorial disputes in East Asia: a comparative analysis of the South China Sea and the East China Sea." ''Journal of Current Chinese Affairs'' 40.2 (2011): 165-193
Online
* Zhang. Ketian. “Cautious Bully: Reputation, Resolve, and Beijing's Use of Coercion in the South China Sea,” ''International Security'' 44:1 (Summer 2019): 117-159. {{Foreign relations of China