During the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s diplomatic work was greatly hampered, and it was difficult for the nation to create a more expansive international space. After the pandemic ended, China spared no effort to promote diplomatic work and has achieved impressive results. It adroitly curbed the United States’ containment attempts and actions, opened a vast space for its international economic activities, and discernibly improved its global image. The country’s international status, influence and voice have been immeasurably elevated, impacting global politics and economics. Its political ideas and initiatives have been widely disseminated and endorsed, shaping international discourse. China’s leadership has strengthened the role of the Global South in international affairs, transforming global power dynamics. Moreover, China’s role in promoting global peace and development continues to rise, contributing significantly to global stability. The success of diplomatic work has allowed China to implement its development strategy in a relatively peaceful, auspicious, and secure environment, especially in promoting Chinese-style modernization and advancing the Belt and Road Initiative.
The mainstay of China’s diplomatic work is head-of-state diplomacy and home diplomacy. Frequent visits by national leaders and diplomats and the reception of foreign guests are crucial diplomatic tasks. Over the past two years, significant diplomatic activities included the China-Arab States Summit for cooperation and development, the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the 15th BRICS Summit, the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, President Xi Jinping’s state visits to Saudi Arabia, France, Serbia and Hungary, his meeting with US President Joe Biden in San Francisco, the deepening of Russia and China’s comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, and many others. Leaders from China and many foreign countries frequently visited each other. All these diplomatic activities have greatly expanded China’s international space for maneuver, demonstrating vividly the success of the nation’s diplomatic endeavors.
China’s efforts to promote world peace are also evident to all. China has proposed a solution to the Ukraine crisis, promoted the unity of various Palestinian factions, and facilitated the “Beijing Declaration”. Admittedly, the Ukraine crisis and the Israel-Palestine conflict cannot be resolved in the short term. Still, China’s position and sense of responsibility for resolving these two conflicts embody most peace-loving countries’ common position and aspiration, providing a moral victory for China. China has won recognition and appreciation from the international community for its leadership and sense of responsibility, which has significantly improved China’s global reputation.
China’s diplomatic work is implemented under the overall national development strategy, and its goal is to expand the international space conducive to China’s development. General Secretary Xi Jinping clarified the basic policy of China’s diplomacy in the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October 2022. He emphasized: “We have pursued major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics on all fronts. We have promoted the development of a human community with a shared future and stood firm in protecting international fairness and justice. We have advocated and practiced true multilateralism. We have taken a clear-cut stance against hegemonism and power politics in all their forms, and we have never wavered in our opposition to unilateralism, protectionism, and bullying of any kind…”
Foreign Minister Wang Yi, when expounding on the relevant aspects of diplomacy mentioned in the resolution of the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted in July, pointed out that diplomatic work must create a favorable external environment for further comprehensive and deep reforms and promoting Chinese-style modernization. Specific work includes steadfastly pursuing an independent foreign policy of peace, maintaining a peaceful and stable international environment, actively promoting high-level opening-up to serve the building of a new development pattern, promoting the in-depth materializing of “three major global initiatives” (Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, Global Civilization Initiative) and leading the pursuit of joint development, advocating an equal and orderly world multipolarity as well as universal and inclusive economic globalization, promoting the reform and improvement of the global governance system, promoting the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity and joining hands in promoting world modernization, fully implementing the overall national security concept to provide a robust security guarantee for modernization, upholding and strengthening the party’s leadership and creating a diplomatic team worthy of the critical tasks of the times.
In the past few years, China has made impressive achievements in implementing its diplomatic strategy. Here are some of the more critical ones. First, even though the US will not stop containing China, it has realized that it has failed to gain the upper hand in the trade war, technology war, ideological war, and diplomatic war it waged against China, and has paid a hefty price for this. The Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine conflicts have already caused the US to struggle politically, morally and militarily. Therefore, it hopes to stabilize its relationship with China for at least some time and avoid the dilemma of a “three-front war”. The meeting between President Xi and President Biden last year has moderately eased the extremely tense Sino-US relations, allowing China to take advantage of this short-term “window of opportunity” to accelerate its development under a “more congenial” China-US relationship.
Second, the visits to China by the leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and others from Europe have improved the economic and trade relations between China and Europe. President Xi’s visits to France, Serbia and Hungary had similar effects — although under the coercion of the US, Europe is not very friendly to China politically, and European commentators even allege that China intends to divide Europe for its advantage. However, some powerful European countries are fully aware of China’s economic importance to Europe, so they continue to seek more autonomy in their policy toward China and strengthen their relations. Most European powers are increasingly unwilling to antagonize China to support and complement the US strategy of containing China, leaving room for continuous improvement in China-EU relations in the future.
Third, the relationship between China and Russia is getting closer, and the breadth and depth of strategic cooperation and mutual trust have reached a new level. The bilateral trade volume has repeatedly reached new highs, especially in energy cooperation. The scale of local currency settlement between China and Russia in their trade is growing. There are increasing opportunities for China to participate in developing the Russian Far East. China and Russia will engage in constructive dialogue with Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on the issue of Chinese ships sailing through the lower Tumen River. The new cooperation plan between China, Russia, and the DPRK on the Tumen River will significantly change the economy, trade, and geopolitics of the region, and this plan is particularly beneficial to China strategically and militarily.
China’s remarkable diplomatic achievements in recent years are among the many things worth celebrating as we mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China
Fourth, China’s relations with Southeast Asian countries have consolidated and improved. Even though they still have disputes over territorial waters, and the Philippines has provoked China from time to time at the instigation of the US, overall, Southeast Asian countries have closer economic and trade relations with China than with the US, and politically and ideologically they are also getting closer to China. In December last year, General Secretary Xi Jinping held talks with the then general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Phu Trong. The two sides announced the new positioning of the relations between the two parties in China and Vietnam and between the two countries. They will work together to build a strategically important China-Vietnam community of a shared future based on deepening their comprehensive strategic partnership and their two ruling communist parties. This move thwarted the US’ attempt to win over Vietnam to counter China and enhanced mutual trust and cooperation between the two socialist countries. Another move to improve China’s status and influence in Southeast Asia is Cambodia’s groundbreaking of the Funan Techo Canal project on Aug 5. The Chinese-funded canal aims to connect Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, to the Gulf of Thailand, thereby reducing Cambodia’s dependence on Vietnam for transportation but strengthening its ties with China.
Fifth, China’s influence in the Middle East is growing by the day. With the rise of China and the failure of US policies on the Middle East, regional powers, such as Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are increasingly striving to unshackle the political constraints of the US, bolster strategic independence, and enhance relations with China. Significant developments such as the growing distrust of US security guarantees by Middle Eastern countries and the increasingly tense relations between Arab countries and the Islamic world and the US after the eruption of the Israel-Hamas conflict are beneficial to strengthening ties between China and Middle Eastern countries. In the past couple of years, China has played an increasingly constructive role in finding solutions to end the Israel-Palestine conflict, promote the establishment of the Palestinian state, undertake post-war reconstruction in Gaza, and maintain peace in the Middle East. The influence of China and the US in the Middle East is growing and waning, respectively.
Sixth, China’s relations with African countries have been in good shape for a long time. After the end of the Cold War, with the rise of China, China’s trade, investment, aid and infrastructure construction in Africa increased tremendously, causing the relationship between the two sides to strengthen continuously. The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation held on Sept 4-6, has furthered the promotion of the construction of the “High-Level China-Africa Community with a Shared Future” and propelled China-Africa cooperation to an unprecedented high level.
Seventh, China’s growing status and influence in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa have broadened and deepened Belt and Road Initiative cooperation, allowing China to connect Eurasia more extensively and closely through various infrastructure constructions. The Eurasian continent and Africa are increasingly linked geographically, economically, and in telecommunications, gradually forming a significant and more integrated regional economic cooperation, thereby continuously expanding China’s international economic space and political clout.
Finally, China’s ideological voice and appeal have gradually increased due to the continued effectiveness of its diplomatic work. Chinese-style modernization has become a development model that other countries value and emulate. China’s fine culture has become more and more widely disseminated and admired. China’s global security, development and culture initiatives have attracted more international attention. Other countries increasingly recognize China’s ideas and initiatives for a new international order. The idea of “a community with a shared future for mankind” is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. China’s rational and objective criticism of Western development models, institutions, and values increasingly triggers international self-reflection. All these factors have enabled China’s soft power to continue rising worldwide.
China’s remarkable diplomatic achievements in recent years are among the many things worth celebrating as we mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
The author is a professor emeritus of sociology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a consultant for the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
