China made remarkable progress in foreign diplomacy last year. The strategic partnership with Russia was deepened, friendship with developing countries was furthered, progress was made in promoting a new type of big-power relationship with the United States, and mutually beneficial cooperation with neighboring countries was strengthened. Positive moves were also taken on international hot-spot issues. In the East and South China Seas, Beijing persisted in its principles on state sovereignty and territorial integrity.

This year, China's diplomatic efforts will focus on building a framework for its big-power relationships, improving its peripheral diplomacy, advancing cooperation with developing countries, putting into practice various economic initiatives, and making a success of its "host diplomacy".

While celebrating its achievements, Beijing should guard against the possibility of things going wrong, especially major powers' negative reaction to China's handling of its peripheral affairs. For instance, Japan and the United States have expressed opposition to China's move to set up an air defense identification zone over the East China Sea despite the move's being consistent with international practice. Washington eventually accepted the fait accompli by asking American airlines to observe China's regulations on flights over the zone, but its annoyance was explicit in its repeated statement of "nonrecognition of China's air defense identification zone." It even sent a B-52 bomber into the zone in a defiant move.

Another example of things turning bad was Kyrgyzstan's announcement that it would not participate in the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project which had long been planned. On the surface, it was because the Kyrgyzstan government had concluded that the railway would bring little benefit to the country. But one cannot exclude the possibility that the US and Russia were behind the change. The two major powers have been tussling for strategic influence in the central Asian country, the only one nation in the world that allows both the US and Russia to set up military bases on its soil. Russian scholar Alexei Vlasov holds the view that through the railway project China will be able to exert financial pressure on central Asian countries and may squeeze the US out of the region and harm Russia's plan for the CIS integration. Obviously Kyrgyzstan's withdrawal from the joint project was more a result of big power games rather than a simple question of whether it is beneficial or not.

Given these considerations, in 2014 China should attach particular importance to the relationship between action and counteraction in its diplomacy, and be prepared for any unexpected turns.

"Host diplomacy", diplomatic activities conducted within China, will be the highlight of this year. This year China will host two major events, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)