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Understanding
Chinas Foreign Policy
Under Xi-Jinping:
Towards New
Sino-Philippine
Relations
september 2015
02
Understanding
Chinas Foreign Policy
Under Xi-Jinping:
Towards New
Sino-Philippine
Relations
CHINA DREAM
To realize the China Dream, Xi Jinping heads both a new commission on national
security and a group on deepening military reforms while also being the chairman of
the China Military Commission.
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* The views and opinions expressed in this Paper are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Institute.
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immediate pre- and post-Asian Financial Crisis decade. China finally understood that its own actions
could be viewed as threatening or benign and so it
must take concrete steps to reduce uncertainty
and ensure that it is being viewed as nonthreatening by others.
Moreover, if China is ever to achieve great power
status, an aspiration that was conjured up by Sun
Yat-Sen, the father of modern China, it must achieve
economic growth and development first and
foremost. This goal of economic development and
managing interactions with other countries can be
seen as complimentary: only a peaceful and
accommodating international environment
can enable Chinas development.
The famous dictum of Deng to coolly observe,
calmly deal with things, hold your position, hide your
capacities, bide your time, accomplish things where
possible exemplifies the strategy. So although
Chinas peace narrative as a diplomatic statement
has only been more pronounced in the beginning
of the 21st Century, specifically under Hu Jintaos
peaceful rise and peaceful development, it has
some origins from Deng. In March 24, 1985,
Deng remarked to a group of Japanese guests that
there are only two fundamental problems in the
world: peace and development, where peace is
an east-west problem, and development
a north-south problem.2
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seen in an isolated fashion: there are other policies past and present that may support the benign
stance of China. Thus while Xi has indeed made a
strong military at par with economic development, it
can still be considered willing to compromise
and avoid conflict through understanding
and reducing uncertainty.
This can be seen in four ways. First and most
fundamentally, China has exhibited its willingness
to compromise and cooperate in light of conflict of
interest among states that have a stake at the South
China Seaa hallmark of a state willing to compromise. On one hand, China has repeatedly invited
regional states for a dialogue to resolve the territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan
and other claimant states. Regardless of whether
it is bilateral or multilateral or of the fact that there
is a huge asymmetry between China and individual
states in bilateral talks, the gesture of inviting others
to dialogue is an important one. Vietnam and Japan,
the two most aggressive regional states that have
conflicts with China have heeded these talks and
we have not seen a breakdown of these talks as of
writing. At the same time, China has invited claimant
states to explore the option for joint exploration.
Secondly, China has increased its cooperative and
coordinative efforts in many parts of the world. It has
stepped-up its economic partnerships through the
Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road
which aims to promote more trade and investments.
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ENDNOTES:
On the security dilemma see The Security Dilemma: A Conceptual Analysis
in Tang, Shiping (2010) A Theory of Security Strategy of Our Time: Defensive Realism,
Chapter 2, pp. 34-71
See primarily Tang, Shiping (2008) From Offensive to Defensive Realism: A Social
Evolutionary Interpretation of Chinas Security Strategy in Ross, Robert and Feng, Zhu
(eds.) Chinas Ascent: Power, Security and the Future of International Politics. (Cornell
University Press). See also Zhang Yunling and Tang Shiping (2005). Chinas Regional
Strategy in Shambough, David (eds.) Power Shift: China and Asias New Dynamics.
(University of California Press)
Kaishen, Li (2015) Beyond The Territorial Disputes: The Old Conception and
New Framework of China-Philippines Relations. Paper presentation at the 1st Asian
Politics and Policy Conference, July 24-25 2015, The Asian Center, University of the
Philippines in Diliman
pp. 1.
6
Fravel, Taylor (2008) Strong Borders, Secure Nation. Princeton University Press
Li (2015)
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Robin Michael Garcia