Many foreign critics assert that China’s foreign behavior has shown “overconfidence” since the financial crisis and is sometimes characterized by unilateralism implemented during the US Bush Administration. Meanwhile, voices can also be heard in China that positive diplomacy should be carried out based on increasingly growing national strength, breaking away from the foreign policy of “Tao Guang Yang Hui”(meaning “not to show off one’s capability but to keep a low profile”) proposed by former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Indeed, great changes have taken place in China’s foreign policy in the new situation.

There has been non-stop discussion about China’s diplomacy domestically since Deng made a theoretic generalization on the essence of Socialism in the South Talks in 1992.

At the beginning of the 1990s, China’s economy was about one-tenth of Japan’s and lagged far behind Western powers, so its foreign behavior was adjusted with changes of the international situation. In this context，China’s diplomatic strategy of “Tao Guang Yang Hui”came into being.

The second round of debate happened at the turn of the century. China eventually joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 after experiencing events such as the US-led NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999, and the Hainan Island incident on April 1, 2001. In the next decade, remarkable achievements were made in the Chinese economy. Foreign diplomacy was also satisfactory in serving the strategic aim of centering on national development.

The third round of debate took place after the 2008 global financial crisis. Meanwhile, the US was wary of other countries rising as it entered relative decline. This was reflected in its strategies towards China and pivot to Asia.

US allies in East Asia support its forces in the Western Pacific and has become one of the two pillars for the US to create the international order. After the financial crisis, worried that its predominance in East Asia would collapse, the US adopted the strategy of “rebalancing” to the Asia-Pacific. China also realized the possibility of Thucydides Trap, a power transition dynamic which inevitably results in conflict, and began to stress guiding the international community by establishing new types of power relations.

China’s sustainable economic growth has indeed promoted its strategic forces. It is advancing towards national rejuvenation with the leadership of the new government. The new round of debate was ignited with the rapid development of Chinese economy.

People both at home and abroad hold some expectation for China, which has strong economic strength. Different understandings about national interests between both sides have resulted in a new situation that Chinese diplomacy has to face in the future.

For example, criticisms from some countries over territorial disputes concerning the Diaoyu Islands and the South China Sea are increasingly intense. They can neither understand related expressions about China’s “core interests,” nor confirm if China is to resolve disputes with neighboring countries within international law and international norms.

Meanwhile, China is striving to develop the maritime power. Many coastal provinces have launched oceanic comprehensive development programs and strengthened surveillance of surrounding waters. Therefore, the development of Chinese maritime power is becoming a new normal of diplomacy.

From another point of view, China’s new leadership is trying to make full use of diplomatic resources from before and after reform and opening-up to create its neighboring environment.

When visiting Mongolia at the end of August, Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed that neighboring countries were welcome to become China’s “free riders.” This marks further progress in China’s diplomatic strategy following Xi’s statement of benefiting neighboring countries at the working conference of neighboring diplomacy in November 2013. “Benefit” will become the new normal of Chinese diplomacy and prompt China to positively act as economic engine and public goods provider in regional affairs.

It can also be seen that the space for Chinese diplomacy to make a difference is enlarging step by step, from the “new concept of Asian security” proposed by Xi at the fourth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). In particular, China is building Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and pushing forward cross-border construction of infrastructure such as pipe networks, highways and railways. It will be the most prominent new normal for China’s future diplomacy to foster closer neighboring relations and promote the development level of neighboring countries. （Chinese Social Sciences Today 2014-11-14）

The author is an associate research fellow with the National Institute of International Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.