{"id":35459,"date":"2017-11-13T12:46:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T01:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=35459"},"modified":"2017-11-13T12:46:51","modified_gmt":"2017-11-13T01:46:51","slug":"striving-for-power-chinese-foreign-policy-in-xi-jinpings-new-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/striving-for-power-chinese-foreign-policy-in-xi-jinpings-new-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Striving for power: Chinese foreign policy in Xi Jinping\u2019s \u2018new era\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Xi Jinping has emerged out of last month\u2019s 19th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party as a new paramount leader of China on a par with Mao Zedong, founder of the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC), and Deng Xiaoping, engineer of the reform policy that has delivered China\u2019s economic rise. It is an extraordinary measure of his dominance in Chinese politics that he is the first living leader to be named as a guide for the party since Mao died in 1976. With \u2018Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era\u2019 written into the party constitution, he now\u2014along with Marx, Lenin, Mao and Deng\u2014defines the meaning of Chinese Communism. As The Economist <\/em>puts<\/a> it, \u2018The congress has consolidated his authority not just for five years but, in effect, for life.\u2019<\/p>\n

What does Xi\u2019s new authority mean for Chinese foreign policy during his second term and beyond? Although China doesn\u2019t publish \u2018grand strategy\u2019 documents as such, the general secretary\u2019s report to the party congress, especially its foreign policy section, comes closest to offering a blueprint for future policy. This year\u2019s report is particularly significant because Xi has a once-in-a-generation message<\/a> to deliver: his judgement that Chinese socialism \u2018has crossed the threshold into a new era\u2019. Declaring that \u2018the Chinese nation now stands tall and firm in the East\u2019 and alluding to the three eras the PRC has gone through, Xi announced that China \u2018has stood up, grown rich, and is becoming strong\u2019, with \u2018brilliant prospects of national rejuvenation\u2019.<\/p>\n

In this florid statement is the essence of China\u2019s national policy. Its goal is to achieve the \u2018great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation\u2019 from the slough of weakness and humiliation over the past two centuries. The process is spread over three stages\u2014the standing-up stage accomplished by Mao, the growing-rich stage achieved by Deng, and the becoming-strong stage that Xi has now promised to deliver. Offering more specificity in this promise, he proposes two cumulative goals in the becoming-strong stage: realising socialist modernisation in 2020\u20132035 and developing China into \u2018a great modern socialist country\u2019 and \u2018a global leader in terms of composite national strength and international influence\u2019 in 2035\u20132050.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake: Xi is trying to at once write and make modern Chinese history by appealing to several dominant themes of that history. Ever since the mid-19th century when China\u2019s last imperial dynasty suffered from terminal decline, the search for wealth and power has been a fundamental national mission for Chinese elites, and national independence and sovereignty an overriding goal. For Xi, Mao achieved the goal of independence, Deng that of wealth, and now it\u2019s his task to deliver the goal of power\u2014or \u2018composite national strength\u2019 across the political, cultural, diplomatic, economic and military domains. Agreeing with Xi that the mission of power is as historic as those of independence and wealth, the party has no difficulty lining up \u2018Xi Jinping Thought\u2019 with \u2018Mao Zedong Thought\u2019 and \u2018Deng Xiaoping Theory\u2019 in its constitution.<\/p>\n

Chinese foreign policy from Xi\u2019s second term on will therefore become a policy of striving for \u2018strong\u2019 or \u2018great\u2019 power, as opposed to Mao\u2019s independence-based or Deng\u2019s wealth-based policy. Notice the significance: Xi is declaring a sharp break with past traditions and proposing a new era for Chinese foreign policy under his command. Ever since the 2000s, analysts have been debating whether Chinese foreign policy has moved beyond Deng\u2019s dictum of \u2018keeping a low profile\u2019\u2014a debate taking on new significance as a result of a more confident or assertive policy during Xi\u2019s first term. Now Xi has resolved this debate by definitively proclaiming the arrival of a new era of foreign policy under the assumption of Chinese power. Although the goal of consummate power is set to be achieved by 2050, Xi has already sentimentally announced the arrival of China as a world power.<\/p>\n

Euphoria and triumphalism are a notable feature of Xi\u2019s report to the 19th Party Congress, perhaps unsurprising for a confident leader consolidating unprecedented power and feeling China \u2018moving ever closer to the world\u2019s center stage\u2019. The reality of Chinese foreign policy, especially in the immediate Asian region, however, is more challenging than acknowledged. Xi has laid out a mesmerising vision\u2014even a grand strategy<\/a>\u2014for China\u2019s rise to power in this century, but numerous challenges remain. Despite his claim to diplomatic progress on all fronts, China\u2019s position in Asia\u2014a key measure of success\u2014is in fact less than fully secure. Notably, relationships with leading regional powers including Japan and India, and important middle powers including South Korea and Australia, have suffered setbacks or volatility in recent years. And North Korea, a festering problem of the first order, has been costing China a terrible strategic price since the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Chinese foreign policy has entered Xi Jinping\u2019s \u2018new era\u2019 of striving for power. Its success will depend on Beijing\u2019s ability to meet various challenges ahead. The first task is to identify the principal contradiction of such a policy and develop appropriate remedies. Will China\u2019s aspiration for greater power come into clash with other countries\u2019 need for their own security and power? In the area of domestic policy, Xi\u2019s report sensibly notes that the new contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved into one \u2018between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people\u2019s ever-growing needs for a better life\u2019. What is the new contradiction of Chinese foreign policy in Xi\u2019s \u2018new era\u2019?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Xi Jinping has emerged out of last month\u2019s 19th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party as a new paramount leader of China on a par with Mao Zedong, founder of the People\u2019s Republic of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":417,"featured_media":35462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[354,52,1248,883,204],"class_list":["post-35459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-asia","tag-china","tag-chinese-foreign-policy","tag-power","tag-xi-jinping"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStriving for power: Chinese foreign policy in Xi Jinping\u2019s \u2018new era\u2019 | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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