China Quarterly of International Strategic Studies

Fundamental changes are taking place both within national borders and on the international stage. While technological advances are accelerating globalization, which brings all the nations closer together, the resurgence of populism, protectionism and nationalism is causing greater divisions along racial, ethnic, and national lines. The spectacular rise of China and the growing weight of developing nations as a whole are changing the world’s geopolitical and geoeconomic landscapes, constraining the West’s influence in global affairs and strengthening the developing world’s capacity in bargaining with advanced economies. In a new era of growing uncertainty and unpredictability, leadership and vision are the most valuable assets for any great power that seeks to shape a new world order according to its grand blueprints. From the Chinese perspective, an era of uncertainty does not only imply hidden risks and threats, but may also bring forth unprecedented strategic opportunities. Standing on the threshold of a new era with ever more readiness to claim its rightful place in the world, China is in the best position since the beginning of its modern history to play a significant role in fostering a new, truly multilateral order.

Targeting a group of developing nations in a specific region, whole-of-region diplomacy as a relatively new practice of China’s diplomacy has caught much attention across the world. Since the 1990s, China’s whole-of-region diplomacy has achieved remarkable breakthroughs in terms of its geographical coverage, extending from Southeast and Central Asia to the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and even Central and Eastern Europe. Through whole-of-region diplomacy, China has not only fulfilled its political commitment and strategic reassurance toward developing nations, but also enhanced the collective identity of various developing regions. Despite the great achievements, China’s whole-of-region diplomacy is far from fully developed and needs further upgrading so as to lay a solid foundation for the country’s sustainable rise. In the future, China’s whole-of-region diplomacy can be advanced by clarifying its strategic position, renovating its institutional framework and scaling up its capacity-building efforts. In the long run, whole-of-region diplomacy, as a key component of the “Xi Jinping thought on diplomacy” and “major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics,” is expected to help China tackle challenges of interest, identity and influence in the developing world and to ultimately achieve its peaceful rise.

Developing countries in China’s neighborhood have occupied a unique position in China’s foreign policy since the beginning of the 21st century. China’s cooperation with neighboring developing countries has been intensified due to a number of factors including, among other things, growing overall national strength, increasingly urgent development needs of neighboring countries, and extraterritorial powers’ shifting strategic focus. Over the past decades, closer economic cooperation between China and neighboring developing countries has facilitated the formation of a network of partnerships and sharpened China’s sense of global responsibility. However, multiple challenges have to be tackled before China can elevate its relations with its neighboring countries to a new level, such as inadequate protection of China’s expanding overseas interests, lingering misunderstanding and disputes between China and its neighbors, as well as interference from extraterritorial powers.

To safeguard its economic and security interests, China has adopted a whole-of-region diplomacy in the Middle East since the end of the Cold war. Through a multitude of regional and international organizations, China has been able to maintain constructive interactions with Middle Eastern countries while deepening its ties with other major powers like the United States, the European Union, Russia, Japan and India. China’s diplomatic efforts have paid off in the Middle East and increased the influence of developing countries as a whole in international politics. Meanwhile, China’s whole-of-region diplomacy is faced with a number of challenges given the complexity of ethnic, religious and security landscapes in the Middle East. China needs more holistic and well-coordinated ways of whole-of-region diplomacy to seek closer relationships with Middle Eastern countries. To this end, it is important for China to consolidate its network of strategic partnerships on the basis of bilateral collaboration and multilateral cooperation, further strengthen its discourse power and agenda-setting capacity, and consider adopting a common but differentiated strategy toward regional countries according to their different national conditions, political systems and paths of socioeconomic development.

As Islamic extremist threats have grown to be a common issue of focus and a major cooperation area between China and Central Asian states since the 1990s, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) provides China with an important regional and even international counter-terrorism platform. Highlighting sustainable security cooperation and countering terrorism in a peaceful way under the “Shanghai Spirit,” the SCO helps stabilize China’s internal security environment while enhancing the country’s economic and cultural cooperation with its Central Asian neighbors. This article reviews the Islamic extremist and terrorist challenges to China and the counter-terrorism cooperation between China and Central Asian states under the framework of the SCO, with a focus on how to tackle the weaknesses of such cooperation. It is concluded that SCO member states must be prudent in taking further steps in counter-terrorism cooperation, especially with regard to whether the organization should be transformed into a quasi-military and political alliance.

As the strategic importance of cyber security increases, the question of how to foster a stable cyber order compatible with the current international order is one of the most urgent issues for the international community. International cyber governance and strategic cyber stability maintenance have thus become two emerging fields in international studies. Generally, there are three states of stability in cyberspace: stable, delicately stable, and unstable. To promote the study of cyber order and enhance rational decision-making, it is necessary to adopt a cyclic perspective and fully explore the transition of cyberspace among the three states. International cyber governance is mainly about managing the cycle of transition of cyberspace and designing robust institutions to prevent instability; in these institutions, international norms, rules, and law will be made as essential guidance for cyber behavior of individual countries. As existing human knowledge and theoretical frameworks are the basis of studies on cyber strategic stability, it is imperative that effective dialogue and joint research among all international stakeholders be conducted on issues of their common concern. This helps to shape the strategic thinking and policy deliberation of individual countries on cyberspace and foster an international order that is conducive to cyber strategic stability.

Despite the traditional resistance to consider climate change as a national security issue, the security impact of climate change has been increasingly recognized by official discourses in China over the past few years. The Chinese perception on climate change has shifted from a development issue to a security topic; and two driving forces are behind the emergence of the climate security discourse: the shift of China’s economy towards a “New Normal” and the commitments China made in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Meanwhile, two modalities of discourse that characterize the Chinese context are also discerned. One that involves national security has a rather fixed procedure about how security can be spoken of and by whom; the other is more relevant for issues like climate change and air pollution. In both cases, even if the language of security is used with regard to climate issues, they are handled as normal politics and governmental actions are legitimized by the use of security language. Although China has taken on more climate responsibilities, it seems unprepared for global climate leadership because security considerations not only determine the country’s participation but also limit its international commitments in global climate governance.

This article examines the implications of the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for Africa’s connectivity. The BRI seeks to rebuild the ancient Silk Road trade route with the overall goal of opening global markets, thus creating a trade and investment network involving three continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. Using secondary data, this article assesses the opportunities and potential challenges of the BRI for Africa with a special focus on various BRI national projects. It concludes that China’s involvement in infrastructure projects in Africa and the BRI’s vision for increased connectivity among beneficiary countries can lead to integrated and streamlined economic and infrastructure development in Africa, while improving China’s corporate and product image, generating mutual benefits to both China and Africa. This article also argues that for those BRI-based benefits to materialize, certain challenges need to be dealt with, particularly security risks and corruption, which could increase the long-term costs of infrastructure projects for countries involved.