With China entering a new stage of its peaceful rise, how the latest changes in its international strategy may be evaluated becomes an increasingly important question. Existing discussion on the question is problematic and misleading, either paying overwhelming attention to the technical issues such as the logical consistency of the means and the ends of China’s foreign policy or emphasizing the unique Sino-centric logic of action adopted by China in its engagement with the world. However interesting these studies may appear, they fail to integrate the two most important factors regarding China’s international strategy: the strategic target(s) and the practices. This article attempts to address concerns about China’s changing international strategy by investigating these two factors. It firstly traces the evolution of China’s strategic target since 1949, suggesting that it is changing from a single-faceted one as being materially strong to a multi-faceted one with increasing efforts to be socially good. This change represents China’s changing identity from an outsider of the Western-dominated international society to an active participant in an international society witnessing the decline of the West and the rise of the Rest. Subsequently, the article briefly examines China’s interaction with other international agents in the second decade of the 21st century, ranging from the United States being the hegemon to Japan being a regional competitor, and to smaller neighboring Southeast Asian countries. It concludes that China’s international strategy is at the cross roads of being materially strong or being socially good, or both each scenario has indicators in China’s international practices under Xi Jinping’s administration. With ever closer engagement and mutual construction between China and the international society, each side should provide sufficient dynamics for the other to improve its degree of legitimacy in the future.

Be Strong and Be Good? Continuity and Change in China's International Strategy under Xi Jinping

Source of documents：China Quarterly of International Strategic Studies