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On Major-Country Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics


by Jin Canrong and Jin Junda On the Conference on Foreign Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held on 28 to 29, November 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out that China should form its major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, thus making the diplomatic work of China be with distinctive Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese manner. This was not only a summary of diplomatic work of the past two years by the new leadership of the country and the Party, but also their collective will and guideline for foreign-related work in the future, which deserve the earnest understanding and learning of all diplomats. Looking through the speech of President Xi Jinping, “major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics” was the concept core of his diplomatic thoughts. On the year-end meeting of China Institute of International Studies held on December 24, 2014, Wang Yi, Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China delivered a speech themed “2014—A Prosperous Year for Diplomatic Work of China”. At the end of his speech, Wang Yi elaborated the “major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics” and emphasized the importance of “Chinese characteristics”, which means to stride a unique path to a stronger nation different from that of other traditional powers. Wang Yi also stressed that it was not only the guideline of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, but also our glorious historical mission. China has been a great power in history and the diplomatic work of China has been of its own principle, style and wisdom. In a certain sense, the diplomatic work of China has been major-country diplomacy with its own characteristics. However, we held that the “major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics” proposed by President Xi Jinping are of at least the following ten more aspects of specific meanings. 1. From the perspective of the historical background of this concept, President Xi Jinping concluded that “China’s development is still in an important period of strategic opportunities” and “China has entered the crucial stage of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. In our opinion, China has gone through the periods of “being bullied” and “suffering from starvation” since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. What lies before us is the problem of “suffering reproaching”, and with the successful resolving of this problem can we say assertively that the rise of China has been achieved. 2. Instead of accentuating its identity of being a developing country, the Conference explicitly acknowledged the major power status of China. So far, the self-positioning of China mainly consists of four aspects: China is a developing country; China is a country under the leadership of the Communist Party of China; China is a great regional power in East Asia which boasts certain global influence; China is now still a country to be reunified. While in this conference, President Xi Jinping defined China as a world major power similar to the United States, which means that China needs to take a more enterprising foreign policy and assume greater responsibilities. 3. Practice first. President Xi Jinping pointed out that “we should enrich and develop our philosophy and idea of diplomatic work based on our practical experience, thus making the diplomatic work of China be with distinctive Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese manner “major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics” is an objective, a process, a practical issue, and is thus in a state of development. Till now, the diplomatic practice of China has been going ahead of diplomatic theories. However, foreign policy also calls for the guidance and complementation of theories and the spread of successful diplomatic experience cannot go far without the aid of theories. Theory itself needs to innovate unremittingly during the process of exploration. 4. The healthy development of China is the basis for all foreign-related work and a robust Chinese economy is the strongest support for diplomacy. Throughout the history of western capitalist countries, with the continuous expansion of the scale of industrialization, countries which realized industrialization earlier than others enjoy a great advantage in international competition. The United Kingdom took the lead in realizing industrialization covering 10 million people, thus establishing the Empire on which the sun never sets and dominating the order of the capitalist world in the 19th century. The United States became the first country in the world to realize industrialization covering 100 million people. Therefore, it dominated the world order of the 20th century and has become the only superpower in the world. So long as Chinese economy maintains efficient, steady and sustainable development and China becomes the first country to realize the unprecedented industrialization covering 1 billion people, China will occupy a favorable position in the international competition of the 21st century and China can be more confident in the process of its rise. However, we should also notice that the industrialization and modernization of China are both in a process of difficult exploration, and the huge size of China means that the future social and economic development of the country is bound to confront with numerous challenges. For its inadequacy in terms of modernized country governance, rule of law, social security, environmental conservation and cultural confidence, continuous and in-depth adjustment and improvement are badly needed for China. 5. Instead of building presence abroad or scrambling for spheres of influence, the mission of China’s diplomacy is to serve the domestic development and reform of China. Just as Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, “China’s diplomacy should make serving the domestic development and reform its first priority. China is the world’s second largest economy, and at the same time, China is a typical developing country. This is our major difference from other major powers. The diplomacy of China should work closely around domestic development, and strive to create a more stable and friendly external environment for domestic development.” 6. In the concrete diplomatic philosophy, practice, role and contribution of Chinese diplomacy, there has always been full of Chinese characteristics. Just as what Foreign Minister Wang Yi said: 1) adhere to the social system and development path of China; 2) adhere to the glorious traditions such as the independent foreign policy of peace, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and the consistent policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of another country. At the same time, sticking to the principle of keeping up with times, China has been working to enrich, perfect and develop its diplomatic philosophy and practice; 3) adhere to the ideas of justice and equality, China has been working to promote democracy in international relations. 7. China has proposed its global strategy of taking the “One Belt and One Road” and FTAAP as the focal points of its global strategies and work to realize the connectivity of 65 countries in six continents alongside the belt and the road. As a responsible major country, the successful implementation of this global strategy first proposed by China will become a model of win-win cooperation based on the principles of equality and openness. This global strategy not only includes schemes of transporting pipeline construction and the establishment of financial institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund, but also depends on the diplomatic efforts of China and related countries. To carry out this spectacle global layout, it’s necessary for China to play a leading role in the international stage. Currently, China is striving to promote cooperation under the frameworks of partner dialogue mechanism of connectivity, the BCIM Economic Corridor, the Sino-Pakistani Economic Corridor, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone. However, it should be realized that some countries are suspicious of China in terms of ideology and other aspects; some countries are reluctant to take part in international cooperation involving certain countries due to conflicts between each other; and it’s unlikely for some big powers outside the Asia-Pacific region to refrain from interfering in the strategic layout of China. All these challenges call for Chinese diplomats to take corresponding countermeasures. 8. Making friends but not forming alliances, so as to establish a global network of partners. China once adopted a foreign policy of alignment before the year 1982, such as the policy of “standing on one side” in the 1950s, the alliance with countries of the Third World in the 1960s, and the de facto alliance with the United States in the 1970s. In 1982, in his address to the opening ceremony of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping proposed that China should carry out an independent and nonalignment foreign policy. Such a foreign policy is beneficial for China to develop all-dimensional diplomacy and promote reform and opening up with its free and flexible international relations. Currently, the United States claimed to “return to Asia” and carry out diplomatic trails of strength with its regional agents. Under such circumstance, some people proposed to resume the foreign policy of alignment. However, the authors are in support of the nonalignment foreign policy of “making friends but not forming alliances” taken by the CPC central committee, and argue that this policy are of the following advantages: it was in accordance with the demands of reform and opening up, which enables China to make friends and refrain from making enemies, thus devoting more resources into economic cooperation. On the other side, making alliances usually means targeting at a third party, which not only brings animosity, but also limits the space of diplomatic activities. What’s more, with the powerful system of alliance established by the United States, were China compete head to head with the United States by building another alliance system, some trading partners now seeking balance between China and the United States will be forced to make a choice between the two sides, and it’s even likely to plunge the world into a “New Cold War”. All these consequences will become external obstacles hindering the economic development of China. By contrast, the nonalignment foreign policy can not only help China avoid the above risks, but also enable China to benefit from flexible and pragmatic international cooperation. 9. We should strive to make the Chinese dream understood and accepted by the rest of the world with splendid Chinese stories and strong soft power. The national strength of a country includes two sides, namely the hard power and the soft power. With the all-out efforts of several generations, China has gone through the period of weak and the hard power of the country has improved dramatically. However, the soft power development of China still lags behind and the efforts to shape the international image of China is still inadequate. We should notice that congenital differences exited between China and many other countries in terms of ideology and culture, which led to a natural defensive mood of these countries on China. If China does not build a sound soft power, the stronger its economy became, the more formidable it looked like, and even benevolent economic cooperation conducted by China would be misunderstood. If such a circumstance persists, China is likely to drop into a “security dilemma” and get lost in endless arms race with its neighbors. One of the major reasons led to the collapse of USSR was that it sank into security crisis on both the western side with NATO and the eastern side with China, and the hostile external environment hindered the domestic socio-economic operation. China must avoid repeating the story of the USSR. In its competition with the United States, the gap between China and the United States in terms of soft power is obvious and China needs urgently to eliminate this gap. To resolve the problem of “suffering reproaching”, China not only needs to improve its hard power, but also needs to form a good national image and forge a bigger global voice in the international system. 10. China should resolutely safeguard its national interest, including its growing national interest abroad. From the perspective of Chinese tradition, the Euro-centric big power diplomacy in the 19th century belongs to power politics; and the big power diplomacy with the United States taking the lead in the 20th century belongs to hegemony politics, while great power diplomacy in the 21st century with China serving as a model should be kingcraft politics or benevolent governance. Power politics means to suppress adversaries or other parties, with colonialism and imperialism as its external manifestations. In the western international ethics, the nature of international relations in this period was named “Hobbesianism”. Hegemony politics means that the most powerful country provides the public goods and at the some time dominants everything in international affairs. In this period, although global international organizations such as the United Nations emerged and the real-sense world market has came into being, the United States pursued unilateralism and frequently operated above the international law it led to formulate, thus emergring hegemony. The western international ethics named the nature of international relations in this period “Rock Doctrine” or the rule of law. While the kingcraft politics means mutual benefit and win-win cooperation—the development of one country can promote the development of other countries. The nature of international relations in this period was named “Kantism” in western international ethics or “tianxia world view” in China. In the era of mutual benefit, China should carry out its diplomatic practice on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence, as well as safeguard its national interest rationally, resolutely and appropriately. The capacity, willingness and actual demand of China now in protecting its national interest are stronger than before. Some neighboring countries want to take the opportunity of China’s state of being on the verge of rejuvenation and entrench their vested interest in disputed areas. Therefore, they took a series of targeted actions in recent years. It can be predicted that there are bound to be some diplomatic spats and frictions between China and these countries in the future. Meanwhile, with both the Chinese government and the Chinese people extending and expanding their interest abroad in the past ten years, the Conference on Foreign Affairs of the Central Committee of the Communist Party proposed explicitly to strengthen the protection of overseas interest and declared it a diplomatic priority. Mariano Rajoy, the Prime Minister of Spain once commented that the Chinese dream is a declaration of China as a great power. The realization of the Chinese dream is the general principle of President Xi Jinping’s tenure. The essence of Chinese dream is the capacity building of a modern country and the improvement of people’s life domestically as well as the formation of the major?-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics internationally. These two aspects are inseparably interconnected: a stable domestic environment is the basis of diplomacy and diplomacy in return can help to forge a beneficial environment for domestic economic development. Only by integrating these two aspects, can the strategic objective of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation come true. (Jin Canrong, member of CAFIU Executive Council Standing Committee, Professor of School of International Studies, Renmin University of China; Jin Junda, Doctor of Political Science, Boston University.)