On December 26, 2022, former Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang wrote an opinion piece for The National Interest with the entitle of “How China Sees the World”. As a career diplomat with well-established expertise, Qin expressed his view on China’s foreign policy goals and its consistent principles regarding the vicissitudes of international relations.
First of all, Qin’s opinion revealed the Chinese Communist Party’s persistent dedication to Chinese national rejuvenation and development while preserving the world peace, justice and the authority of the United Nations as the core. This has been reaffirmed at the 20th Party Congress that China is committed to its foreign policy goals of promoting common development and building a community with a shared future for mankind. Such an official, open declaration of the CPC’s worldview sheds light on the way it engages with the world for the next decade.
Now acting as Foreign Minister of China, Qin Gang pointed out that in the past decade, China has established twenty-one pilot free trade zones and increased the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) which include the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the biggest FTA in the world. According to the data from the World Bank, “China ranks thirty-first globally in the Ease of Doing Business Ranking, up by sixty-five spots in ten years.” Given this, any benign media should avoid reporting the fabricated stories such as the rise of China is a challenge to the world order nowadays and Beijing aims to “move backwards” in reform and opening up, which has been carried on since the late 1970s.
If any readers are mentally-healthy enough in examining China’s domestic politics and its foreign policy, it is not difficult to grasp that China has called for the world as a community with a shared future which eventually leads to the path of peaceful development given the globalized world system. As a matter of fact, over the past decades, China’s development has been benefitted from its close links with the world and in turn it has acted a stronger force for peace rather than a growing power poised to change the status quo. If we look around the geopolitical environment of China, it is the United States which has made all efforts to spur the AUKUS pact with Britain and Australia, the Indo-pacific Quad with Japan, Australia and India and the so-called Partnership of Blue Pacific (PBP) in South globe, all of which have targeted to contain the peaceful rise of China while the U.S.-led NATO has deliberately trespassed the Russian security interest in Europe and beyond. As geography is one of the most permanently vital factors affecting a country’s security, China and Russia have necessarily come to coordinate their mutual core interests and security concerns in the scenario where the United States and its allies have determined to maintain their prior unilateral hegemonic world order in line with the so-called shared values and the common strategic needs. China and Russia have forged the “standing back-to-back” strategic partnership which aims to defend their common security interests and inclusive world order involving the Global South.
Prior to the war in Ukraine, China was highly concerned about the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine because it would lead to affect Eurasia which refers to the “Heartland” of the world stretching from the Volga to the Yangtze and from the Himalayas to the Arctic Ocean. Now China and Russia have seen each other as the geostrategic sinew in face of the growing threats from the U.S.-led allies. Since the war has dragged on for nearly one year in Ukraine and was apparently manipulated and urged by the U.S.-led NATO, they are anxious to deprive Russia of its major power status in the world affairs. There is no question that China doesn’t want to see this war ongoing, but it has reiterated that “China firmly supports Russia led by President Putin to achieve strategic development goals against all the odds and disturbance, and to further establish Russia’s status as a major country on the international stage.” As a rising great power, China is well-aware of the consequences if it losses Russia as the most effective strategic partner in the international arena since the rationale behind is China’s “back-to-back” strategic partnership with Russia.
From the very beginning, China has argued that conflicts and wars produce no winner and confrontation between major countries must be avoided. Accordingly, China has urged peace talks between Russia and Ukraine as well as dialogue between the United States-led NATO and Russia. Also China holds that since grounding one’s own security on other countries’ insecurity won’t work, it is necessary to establish a balanced, effective, and sustainable European security framework. This is the fundamental reason why China has refused taking the sides between the warring parties; and on the issue of the Ukraine crisis, it has always decided its position and policy on the merits of the issue itself. There is no choice other than this.
Since the Ukrainian crisis and its aftermath, China will strengthen strategic partnership with Russia, and at the same time, Beijing has reiterated that China will continue to follow the principles of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith, and of pursuing the greater good and shared interests in the Global South. It indicates that China will expand exchange and cooperation with Africa in various fields and at all levels, including between the governments, legislatures, political parties, militaries and localities. As FM Qin Gang said that China is committed to the friendly relations with the Africa Union which is not only one of the most influential intergovernmental organizations in the world, but also a banner of African countries seeking strength through unity and of developing countries pursuing progress in solidarity.
In brief, China is a great rising power with a sure impact on the world’s future. This is what has been talked of the great responsibility of China in the world affairs. To that end, China has been sincere to promote the world as a community with a shared future, then openness, cooperation, and win-win outcomes will be the fruits of their choice. For sure, China stays committed to the stable relations with the major countries like the U.S., Russia and the European Union. Yet, it is equally much urgent to stand in solidarity with the Global South amid a global volatility and multiple crises to uphold international justice and promote common interests simply because the collective rise of developing countries is irreversible, and the advent of an Asian century and an African century is no longer a distant dream as they jointly work for the cause of global development and security, and earnestly together make the global governance system more just and equitable.