China's New Diplomacy

Evan S. Medeiros and M. Taylor Fravel

From Foreign Affairs, November/December 2003

Summary:  The recent crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons has had at least one unexpected aspect: the crucial -- and highly effective -- intervention of Beijing. China's steady diplomacy is a sign of how much things have changed in the country, which has long avoided most international affairs. Recently, China has begun to embrace regional and global institutions it once shunned and take on the responsibilities that come with great-power status. Just what the results of Beijing's new sophistication will be remains to be seen; but Asia, and the world, will never be the same.

Evan S. Medeiros is an Associate Political Scientist at the Rand Corporation. M. Taylor Fravel is a Fellow at Harvard University's Olin Institute for Strategic Studies.

Deng's transformation was only partial, however, and Chinese participation in the international community remained thin during his tenure. Indeed, Beijing sought many of the rights and privileges of a great power without accepting most of the attendant obligations and responsibilities. This dynamic was especially obvious in intergovernmental organizations such as the un. The process of forging foreign policy under Deng also remained highly centralized, and China's diplomatic corps remained undertrained and inexperienced. Worse, the content of China's actual policies themselves was often inaccessible and vague.

Today, by contrast, the situation has improved dramatically; China's approach to bilateral relations, multilateral organizations, and security issues reflects a new flexibility and sophistication. The changes represent an attempt by China's recent leaders to break out of their post-Tiananmen isolation, rebuild their image, protect and promote Chinese economic interests, and enhance their security; they also demonstrate an attempt to hedge against American influence around the world. The prominence of this motivation varies in China's public statements over time, but it remains a persistent influence in Beijing's calculations.

The more recent transformation began in the early 1990s, with Beijing's drive to expand its bilateral links. Between 1988 and 1994, China normalized or established diplomatic relations with 18 countries, as well as with the Soviet successor states. Then, in the 1990s, it began to build on these new relationships, establishing various levels of "partnership" to facilitate economic and security coordination and to offset the United States' system of regional alliances. The pinnacle of this process was the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation that China signed with Russia in 2001.

During this period, Beijing also began to abandon its previous aversion to multilateral institutions, which Deng had always feared could be used to punish or constrain China. Chinese leaders began to recognize that such organizations could allow their country to promote its trade and security interests and limit American input. Thus, starting in the second half of the 1990s, China began to engage with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). In 1995, Beijing began holding annual meetings with senior ASEAN officials. Two years later, China helped initiate the "ASEAN + 3" mechanism, a series of yearly meetings among the ten ASEAN countries plus China, Japan, and South Korea. Next came the "ASEAN + 1" mechanism, annual meetings between ASEAN and China, usually headed by China's premier. China also deepened its participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, hosting the ninth leaders' meeting in Shanghai in 2001.

In Central Asia, meanwhile, China led the establishment of the region's first multilateral group, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Founded to settle long-standing territorial disputes and to demilitarize borders, the organization now stresses counterterrorism cooperation and regional trade.

China also turned its attention to improving its ties to Europe. In 1996, China was a founding member of the Asia-Europe Meeting, which holds biannual summits for heads of state and yearly ministerial meetings. Two years later, China and the EU also initiated an annual political dialogue. Most dramatically, Beijing even approached NATO late last year for the first time. China's proposal -- to begin a series of conversations -- may have been modest, but it marked a significant departure from Beijing's tradition of criticizing American-led alliances. Still, the gesture should not be mistaken as a new Chinese embrace of collective security; it could also be used to monitor and possibly exploit differences within the transatlantic alliance, especially regarding NATO's involvement in Central Asia.

Throughout the 1990s, China also moved to resolve a number of territorial disputes that have historically caused tension between it and its neighbors. Since 1991, China has settled border conflicts with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam -- and it has sometimes done so on less-than-advantageous terms. In fact, in most of these agreements, China received only 50 percent or less of the contested territory; for example, in resolving a long-standing dispute over the Pamir Mountains, which Tajikistan inherited from the Soviet Union, China accepted only 1,000 of the contested 28,000 square kilometers.

Relations have improved even with India, long one of China's adversaries (the countries fought a border war in 1962). Although the two sides remain unable to settle their differences formally, tensions on their disputed border have decreased dramatically, thanks to confidence-building and troop-reduction agreements signed in the 1990s. Similar agreements have been reached with Russia and the Central Asian states. As a result, China's long land border, the site of many of the country's major wars, has never been more secure.

Beijing has likewise adopted a more pragmatic approach to the management of offshore territorial disputes, such as those over the Paracel, Spratly, and Senkaku Islands. Although China still clings to its claims over the islands, it has now repeatedly committed itself to settling the disputes peacefully, based on international law. After four years of negotiation, ASEAN and China signed a long-awaited declaration on a code of conduct for such matters in 2002. Interestingly, the final document included most of the draft language sought by ASEAN -- and little of what was offered by China.

Perhaps more surprising, China has even begun to promote initiatives on security issues in forums in which the United States plays a major role. At the 2003 ASEAN summit, China proposed the establishment of a new security mechanism. Under the rubric of the ASEAN Regional Forum, the organization's mechanism for security discussions, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing proposed forming a conference to increase communication among Asian militaries. This gesture represents a marked departure from China's posture only a decade ago, when it shied away from any security discussions with ASEAN, let alone among militaries.