I. The effects of the background of the world and AsiaPacific on the adjustment of strategy of China 1. Several important policy adjustments of the US under the control of Donald Trump have strongly affected the international face, AsiaPacific region as well as USChina relationship. Since Donald Trump’ s inauguration in January 2017, several foreign adjustments of the US has been made in the manners: (i) Practically, top priority for interests of the US , shortterm economic benefits are more important than longterm values and strategies, deployment of foreign strategy for the purpose of addressing domestic problems firstly (employment, trade, investment, ……); Willing to implement the exchanges including sensitive issues in relationships with rivals and allies and partners; (ii) Military is more appreciated than diplomacy, bilateral is more appreciated than multilateral (increasing 910% of defense budget, reducing 30% of diplomatic budget and environmental protection); (iii) Disaffirming the legacy of the predecessor (declare death of the rebalancing policy, deciding to withdraw the US from the TPP, reapplying the previous policies to Cuba, withdrawing the US from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), ... );(iv) Unpredictable, easy to make changes due to being in the period of forming policies, facing great difficulties and obstacles from within the US and strongly influenced by Trumps personality (somewhat erratic, aggressive, personal preference and allergy to criticism).
Trang 1CHINA'S ADJUSTMENTS OF FOREIGN STRATEGY FROM THE 19 TH CHINESE
COMMUNIST PARTY CONGRESS TO PRESENT
AND ITS IMPACTS
I The effects of the background of the world and Asia-Pacific on the adjustment of strategy of China
1 Several important policy adjustments of the US under the control of Donald Trump have strongly affected the international face, Asia-Pacific region as well as US-China relationship.
Since Donald Trump’ s inauguration in January 2017, several foreign adjustments of the
US has been made in the manners: (i) Practically, top priority for interests of the US , term economic benefits are more important than long-term values and strategies, deployment of
short-foreign strategy for the purpose of addressing domestic problems firstly (employment, trade,investment, ……); Willing to implement the exchanges including sensitive issues in
relationships with rivals and allies and partners; (ii) Military is more appreciated than diplomacy, bilateral is more appreciated than multilateral (increasing 9-10% of defense budget, reducing 30% of diplomatic budget and environmental protection); (iii) Disaffirming the legacy
of the predecessor (declare "death" of the "rebalancing" policy, deciding to withdraw the US
from the TPP, re-applying the previous policies to Cuba, withdrawing the US from the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), );(iv) Unpredictable, easy to make changes due to
being in the period of forming policies, facing great difficulties and obstacles from within the USand strongly influenced by Trump's personality (somewhat erratic, aggressive, personalpreference and allergy to criticism)
The above adjustments have reduced the credibility from countries, especially from alliesand partners of the US, negatively affected the soft power and global leadership role of the US
In the Asia-Pacific region, the US’s withdrawal from the TPP has created an economic "powervacuum" for China to exploit At the global level, the fact that Trump’s government is carryingout a trade protection policy, reducing international commitments, in some ways, has facilitatedChina to promote globalized "leadership" role, seize the power to lead forces to serve theintention of becoming a world power later
By the second year of the term, President Trump has continued to adjust policies toChina In the National Security Strategy (12/2017) and the Military Strategy (1/2018), the US
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Trang 2has publicly identified China as a strategic rival for the first time In the field of science andtechnology, the US continuously pressured to curb China's rise, prevent and neutralize the "Made
in China 2025" Plan set by China since 2015, typically by prohibiting Chinese leadingtelecommunications corporations such as ZTE to import modern components (chips, microchips)from the US companies such as Intel and Qualcom In terms of economy and trade, the US hascontinuously "struck" China with the imposition of high import duties of $250 billion so far forChinese goods exported to the US in 2018, are planning to continue to impose taxes on Chinesegoods which are `worth of hundreds of billions of dollars 1 In fact, the US launched a trade warwith China on a large scale Regarding regional security issues, unlike previous governments,Trump’s government is changing its approach to the issue of Korean peninsula by moreharmonious and direct dialogues with North Korea’s government for disarming nuclear whileseparating North Korea from traditional Chinese orbit In respect of Taiwan and South China Seaissues, Trump’s government is also increasingly showing a tough approach, not afraid ofcolliding
All of adjustments of the US mentioned above directly have affected to the strategicenvironment around China as well as the intention to become a world power in the middle of thetwenty-first century as mentioned in "two goals lasting for hundreds of years "
2 Relationships between major countries in manner of both cooperation and struggle, but more increasingly fierce in the strategic competition
Rapid changes in the strength correlation between the US and other power centers makethe strategic competition between major countries increasingly fierce Before Mr Trump’sgovernment, while the background of the US has been relatively weak, China and Russia havebeen the most powerful challenges of the world order dominated by the US and the West,leading the strategic competition in relationships of China-US and Russia-US to get more andmore intense
Therefore, it should be clearly realized that, regardless of the any implementations of anyaspects, the nature of the point is that the strategic competition of China - US and Russia - UScompete ally Besides the conflict of geographical – strategic interests, anti-China and anti-Russian forces within the US are relatively strong, making it difficult for any US president to
1 The US imposed an additional tax of 25% on US $ 50 billion of Chinese goods, and then continued to impose a 10% to 25% tax on US $ 200 billion of Chinese goods At the same time, President Trump also expected to continue to impose more taxes to the Chinese goods valued at of 267 billion USD.
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Trang 3implement a policy of peace with China and Russia Contrary to initial expectations when Trumpwas elected, so far the prospect of improving the relationship of US-Russia or US’s "playingRussian cards" in the strategy of curbing Chinese (like Nixon used to “playing Chinese cards” tocurb the Soviet Union) becomes very difficult Although Trump still set the possibility ofstrategic cooperation with Russia open, internal battles and the drastic resistance of the “anti-Russia” conservative forces within the US (especially the relentless issue of Russia’s back-upforwarded Trump’s crew to get win in contested US presidential election 2016) and Republicansmade Trump very difficult to implement the will to improve US-Russia relationship soon.Remarkably, the pressure of long-term embargo of the US and the West applied to Russia afterthe issue of that Crym has been merged to Russia has pushed Russia toward China in botheconomic and security – the counterbalancing strategy to the US
The new point is that showing powerfully political trend in the relationship with majorcountries is clearer than before Major countries are ready to use force against small countries asthe opponent's "satellite" for the purpose of determent, "try" the limits of each other, especially
in US-Russia and US-China relationships The cases that the US has bombarded Syria and let theaircraft carrier approach the Korean peninsula for 3 times in 2017 are deterrent messages forwardRussia and China However, major countries still seek the cooperation in common interests such
as counter-terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction The competition has thelimit that leading to no confrontation or broken relationships; the cooperation has the limit thatleading no large strategic compromises have been set or large strategic compromises have notbeen set yet
3 The trend of populism and nationalism is emerging strongly, significantly affecting the process of globalization, regionalization, multilateralism as well as the role of international law.
Populism and nationalism are rising strongly and affecting internal politics and foreignpolicies of several countries The new point is that this wave is emerging strongly in the regionand the developed capitalist countries that have provided the most powerful advocacies forglobalization including Europe and North America On the political scene of the US and the UKand several key members of EU, populist forces have either gained the power or won a largerrole Meanwhile, developing countries, especially Asian countries, have expressed a view to
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Under the influence of the populist and nationalist movement, countries tend to valuenational - ethnic interests over regional and international common interests In particular, thereductions of the interest & commitment & resources of the US for the United Nations andclimate change response under Donald Trump’s government, also have strongly affected thebehavior of countries in the manner of reducing confidence in the multilateral institutions and therole of international law, showing more cares for selfish national interests and enlistment ofmajor countries
4 The Asia-Pacific region continues to be at the forefront of economic development and economic links but security is increasingly unstable; the situation of " double supers, multiple powers" is increasingly being formed with the dominant role of the US and China
Compared to the world background, the Asia-Pacific region is moving faster due to anumber of factors: (i) This is the most dynamic developmented area in the world, with theprospect of becoming the world's new center of power in the 21st century, with the presence ofmost of the world's most powers which have fierce strategic competition with each other; (ii)This is one of the areas with the highest concentration of potential hotspots directly related tostrategic competitions of major countries as well as non-traditional security challenges in theworld; (iii) Compared to other regions such as Europe and America, multilateral institutions inthe Asia-Pacific region have not developed to the extent that they can handle security challenges
in the region There is also no collective security system like many other areas in the world
The US and China have a superior overall strength compared to other major powers including Japan, Russia and India Only the US and China have a GDP of over USD 10,000
billion (in 2016, the GDP of the US is USD 18,561 billion and of China is USD 11,391 billioncompared to about USD 4,900 billion of Japan, USD 2,500 billion of India and USD 1,500billion of Russia) The US and China are also 2 powers with the largest military budget in theworld: In 2016, the US spent US $ 596 billion, accounting for 40% of global military costs whileChina's figure was US $ 147 billion and 9.7%
By 2017, China has become the largest trading partner of over 130 countries andterritories In which, nearly all regional countries, including close allies of the US such as Japan,South Korea, Australia .have the number one trade relationship with China This is an
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The East Asia region has become the place of several most traditional and traditional security hotspots of the world while the regional structure is still in the process of
non-forming, multilateral institutions are weak and lack of binding , not able to solve problems in theregion The four hotspots of potential conflicts in the region including the Korean Peninsula, theEast China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea have directly related to the China-USstrategic competition and will undoubtedly entice the direct military intervention of the threestrongest powers in the world including the US, China and Japan, if the conflict occurs In thosehotspots, the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea are considered hotspots that are most atrisk of conflict
ASEAN has formed the Community with a population of 630 million USD and at the time
of starting the construction of Community, a total GDP of 2,400 billion USD has been achieved(ranked 7th in the world and is expected to be the fourth largest economy in the world by theyear 2050) The role of ASEAN is still respected by major countries and partners However,ASEAN has not become a unified entity with a larger role than before, even the "central role" ofASEAN is showing signs of reduction due to internal challenges and policy adjustments of majorcountries Before the XIX Congress, the ASEAN Community was established over a year, butthe level of cooperation was actually relatively low ASEAN is essentially an intergovernmentalorganization, not really a Community with common policies The level of internal economicintegration is very low: trade among ASEAN countries accounts for only about 24% ofASEAN's total trade, while this rate in EU is about 60%
ASEAN is facing internal challenges and external challenges In terms of internal issues,except Singapore, 4 out of 5 founding member countries of ASEAN are experiencing domesticproblems that need to be addressed Countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar also facevarious difficulties related to politics, economy, and separatism due to religious and ethnicconflicts, in which Cambodia and Laos have seriously depended on China That reality is giving
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In particular, the South China Sea issue continues to be complicated in the field as well
as in the politics-diplomatic, legal and gathering forces China has completed the construction of
structures in Changsha 2 ; on the one hand, strengthened the presence in the field, aggressivelycombined militarization with civilization to force regional countries to gradually accept the newstatus, besides, expressed diplomatic harmony to differentiate regional countries, creatingdivision between countries of ASEAN, not allowed ASEAN to become a unified entity thatcould be relative counterbalance on China, prevented ASEAN countries from falling towards the
US, prevented the US, Japan and India from participating in the South China Sea issue The
US has not considered the South China Sea as a priority in regional policy, still focused ondealing with more important issues to the US including the Korean nuclear and trade deficit withChina In 2017, despite strengthening the military presence in the South China Sea more than theObama’s era, Trump’s government still has no clear, formal policy on the South China Sea, notinterested in gathering the political - diplomatic force or overall combination of military, political
- diplomatic and economic - commercial measures to prevent China’s violations of internationallaw in the South China Sea Other major countries such as Japan, India and some of the majorpowers in the EU have shown signs of wanting to engage more deeply in the South China Sea,but due to constraints of resources, they cannot afford to influence China's behavior
This situation makes the South China Sea more and more beneficial to China and moredisadvantageous for the countries of ASEAN in dispute, including Vietnam The gap incomparision of forces of China and the claimant countries in the South China Sea is increasinglydiluting in favor of China The uncertainty and trust in the US security commitment forward tothe region also makes the internal ASEAN more divided and weakened regarding the SouthChina Sea issue Not only practical countries like Cambodia and Philippines, but also somescupulous countries such as Singapore and Indonesia have also adjusted their approachs towards
a more gentle approach to China The field situation as well as the gathering of forces for theSouth China Sea issue are creating a basis for China to make the "Nine-dash line" claim possible
to control and proceed to achieve the goal of monopolizing the South China Sea
2 In the three years from 2014-2017, China has created a total of 1,300 hectares on 7 structures in Changsha, 20 times larger than the total area of all other countries with dispute in Truong Sa combined
in the past 40 years.
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Xi Jinping's political report presented at the XIX Congress of the CCP has identifiedgreat and important goals and tasks for the next phase of China's development, which specifylong-term strategic objectives is to make China become a modern socialist power with a nationalsynergy and the world-leading influence by 2050 (implying a clear superpower goal) To achievethat goal, China will continue the full azimuth diplomatic layout, and foreign policy of majorcountry with Chineses features in many fields and levels
The report of Xi Jinping has pointed out that, in the last 5 years after the 18th Congress(October 2012), China has achieved great achievements with historical and comprehensivecharacteristics, bringing several profound & basic changes for China; has solved very difficultproblems that could not been solved for many years, made great things that past years have not
been able to carry out In which, in terms of economy and society, China continued to maintain a high
average growth rate, GDP from RMB 54,000 billion in 2012 (equivalent to USD 8.130 billion) increased toRMB 80,000 billion (USD 12,000 billion), hold the position of world's second largest economy,contributing over 30% to global GDP growth; trade turnover, offshore investment and foreignexchange reserves are constantly leading the world; people's income is higher than economic
growth In terms of foreign policy, the full azimuth diplomatic layout continues to be expanded
and with depth, the foreign policy of major country with Chineses features are comprehensivelydeployed in many fields and levels; maintaing the peace & stability of external environment ofChina, China's international influence, the abilility for calling upon and tectonic capacity areenhanced to the next level; China has implemented a series of major initiatives such as "Belt andRoad," Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank; has organized many important events such asAPEC Summit (11/ 2014), G20 Summit in Hangzhou (9/2016), High-level International Forum
"Belt and Road" (5 / 2017), BRICS Summit in Xiamen (9/2017); China has made great newcontributions to regional peace and development and the world
However, Xi Jinping's report at the XIX Congress has also pointed out, besides theachievements, China has still had many difficulties and challenges: unbalanced, unevendevelopment have not been resolved; quality and efficiency of development are not high;creative capacity is not strong; the level of economic development is really low; the task ofprotecting the environment is still difficulty; issues of livelihood of the people such asemployment, education and health still face many difficulties; the development and income gaps
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Based on the full assessment and analysis of achievements and limitations over the past
5 years, Xi Jinping's Political Report at the XIX Congress has identified great and importantgoals and tasks for the next stage of China's development, in which the long-term strategic goal
is to bring China to become a modern socialist power, with the national synergy and the
world-leading influence by 2050 Xi Jinping has emphasized that the XIX Congress brought China into
a new era 3 of socialism with Chinese features and moved to the third stage of development, afterChina "stood up" (under Mao Zedong’s era), was "rich" (under the Deng Xiaoping’s era), nowwill be "strong" (under Xi Jinping’s era) At the same time, China's strategic goals and foreignpolicy in the following stage will also have new changes which produce profound affects to thesituation of the world, region and international political situation in the following years
1 Strategic objectives and tasks
Xi Jinping's political report continues to affirm the strategic development goal in thenew era to successfully implement the socialist modernization, until the middle of the 21st
century, China will become the rich and modern, strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious andbeautiful socialist power; to emphasize that the period from the XIX Congress to the XXCongress (2022) is the period of interference of two "goals of 100-year" whereby the first "goals
of 100-year" must be successfully implemented with the formation of a entirely well-off society
by 2021 (celebrating 100 years of establishment of the Party) while must open a new process,create momentum for the completion of the second "goals of 100-year" by 2049 (100 years ofestablishment of the Nation )
On that basis, Xi Jinping, for the first time, has identified a two-step roadmap toconcretize the implementation of the second "goals of 100-year": (i) from 2021 to 2035, the basiccompletion of the modernization of socialism is made; (ii) from 2035 to 2049, building Chinainto a modern, rich &strong, democratic, civilized, harmonious and beautiful socialist power isfinished Basically, the long-term goal in China's global strategy after the XIX Congress is still
"new era" appears 34 times.
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In which, Xi Jinping has emphasized that the international objectives and tasks would expand the development space to create the new international position and influence,
and international strategies would contribute directly and importantly to the successfulimplementation of the strategy development goals for medium-term & long- term mentionedabove The political report of Xi Jinping at the XIX Congress has determined the key objectives
and tasks of China in the international strategy for the next time: Persistently promoting the
construction of “common community for human destiny (on the basis of upgrading the
"common community for Asian destiny"); promoting the establishment of a new type of
international relationship (on the basis of upgrading "a new type of relationship of major
countries" proposed to the US from 2013); building a global partnership network; resolutely
protecting the sovereignty, security and national development benefits.
In the article on the Diplomatic Thought of General Secretary Xi Jinping, ChineseForeign Minister -Wang Yi –right before the XIX Congress also has pointed out the key goal andtask of foreign policy for next time that "opening a new situation for foreign diplomacy of majornation with Chinese features” by promoting the establishment of "the common community for
human destiny”, building “international relationship with new style”, raising " global partnership network” while clarifying the implications of these concepts, in which: common community for
human destiny is a policy to build the world with 5 characteristics including lasting peace, broad
security, prosperity together, openness, longanimity, beauty and freshness; new-style international
relationship with the content of mutual respect, justice, cooperation instead of antagonism,
victory together instead of monopoly; building a network of global partnerships is a policy of
expanding friendships under the principle of no association, no alliance, raising equal andpeaceful and generous partnership, no division of front, no assumed enemy, no aim toward thethird party 4
Based on the overall objectives and tasks stated in the XIX Congress, China will focus
on implementing a number of objectives and tasks on the following aspects:
2017.
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external environment, to consolidate a favorable international environment in order to maintainand extend the period of strategic opportunities for China's development; firmly protect "coreinterests" 5 especially sovereignty and territorial integrity, national security and developmentinterests; strengthening the gathering of forces, promoting the formation of new regional securityframeworks and orders based on national interests
About development: Maximize the scope and space of national interests through
strengthening interwoven interests with countries, promoting the establishment of a globalpartner network on the basis of mutually beneficial cooperation, sharing benefit distributiondeveloped as a binding agent; thoroughly exploit the strengths of the regional and world markets,especially the energy and resource markets, actively attract foreign capital, techniques andmanagement experience to serve domestic development, strengthen the National Capability Thekey task in this phase is to promote implementation of initiatives, regional and inter-regionaleconomic connections that established and lead by China, especially the "Belt and Road"strategy to continue to push strong strategic power to expand the area for developing the marineeconomic
About international position: Continue to expand the scope of influence, further
improve the role and voice of China in international issues, first of all in the Asia-Pacific region;strive to create and reinforce the image of "responsible big country" actively participating inleading international political-economic-mechanism and institutions, actively participating in theconstruction of "game rules," shaping the agenda in global issues China's deep goal is to create anew international position commensurate with the increasing National Capability, step by steppromoting the formation of regional and international order that towards China’s benefits
2 Guidelines and ways to achieve strategic goals
Xi Jinping's speech at the XIX Congress continued to affirm China's strategy of nexttime: Persistently go on the path of peace development, implement the strategy of opening doorswith mutual benefits and winning; persevering in a new way in the relationship between thecountry and the country is mutual respect, equal negotiation, non-confrontational dialogue,
"core interests" of China, including the following six points: (i) national sovereignty; (ii) national security; (iii) territorial integrity; (iv) unification of the country; (v) the national political regime stipulated by the Constitution and stabilizing the social bureau; (vi) basic assurance for sustainable development of socio-economy.
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of major principles and principles in international affairs: Implementing peaceful, independent
and autonomous diplomacy policies; promote the development of new-style internationalrelations with mutual respect, fairness, righteousness, cooperation and winning; respect thehuman’s right of choosing the path of development, keep the international justice andrighteousness, oppose to impose their will on others, oppose the intervention of other domesticaffairs, oppose the big country abuse small ones Emphasizing that China decided not to developitself by sacrificing the interests of other countries, also decided not to give up its legitimaterights, anyone should not have an illusion that China will "bite the bullet." to harm its interests.China's development does not pose a threat to any country; no matter what level of development
it is, China will never confess, never expand.6
In the view of the XIX Congress and the guiding thought of Xi Jinping, about strategic layout to
expand the global influence to focus on:
About foreign politics, actively developing global partnerships, expanding the benefits of
interference with countries; building a comprehensive and stable overall framework of bigcountry relations; deepening relations with neighboring countries from the perspective of
"friendly, sincere, mutually beneficial, mercy" 7 and the motto of "being friendly with neighbors,making friends with neighbors;" strengthening solidarity and cooperation with developingcountries from the perspective of "heartily, real, friendly, sincere" 8to strengthen cooperationwith other political parties and political organizations of other countries, promote externalexchanges of the Parliament, the Political, the military, the local and the mass organizations
About foreign economic, persistently open foreign relations, actively promote
cooperation and build "Belt and Road;" promote aid to developing countries, especially the leastdeveloped countries, promote narrowing the development gap between the South and the North;support multilateral trade institutions, support liberalization, trade and investment facilitation;promote the trend of economic globalization in the direction of increasingly open, mercy,balanced and win-win
8 Heartily, real, friendly, sincere.
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intelligence and plans in international issues; actively participate in reforming and building aglobal governance system, promote democratization of international relations, maintain equalityamong nations; supporting the United Nations to promote an active role, support the expansion
of representation and voice of developing countries in international issues
3 Implementation measure
In the Political Report presented at the XIX Congress, Xi Jinping emphasized severalimportant points about how to implement the strategy to achieve the international strategy,including:
Comprehensive implementation of foreign policy
The focus of China's foreign strategy in the coming time is to promote the building of a
"Major-Country Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics" that is worthy of National Capability,especially economic and military power are growing In particular, the implementation measure
is to further deepen the external aspect of "global, multi-sectoral, multi-level" aspects through thestrong deployment of external activities on all five levels are: major countries diplomacy,neighbor and regions diplomacy, developing countries diplomacy, multilateral diplomacy andpeople's diplomacy; expand the establishment of cooperative partnerships around the world,create a "circle of friends," which is essentially a gathering of forces based on the development
of benefit sharing; consolidate and enhance China's proactive strategic position in internationalrelations, gradually becoming more evident in the role of "world power."
Take " actively act" instead of “wait for time ”
With the goal of making China to become the world's leading power in the middle of thetwenty-first century, Xi Jinping's viewpoint at the XIX Congress is a milestone that shows thatChina has completely abandoned the diplomacy motto "wait for time ”(initiated by DengXiaoping) to transition to the diplomatic period "actively act" Accordingly, in terms of bothforeign thinking and behavior, China will make adjustments in a proactive way and moreassertively in the implementation of a large foreign diplomacy, actively promoting thedevelopment of a new international relations framework under the banner of "common destiny ofhumanity" (essentially building the main structure international rule in which China is perceived
as a new center of power of the world); more resolute and firm in implementing strategicobjectives as well as protecting national core interests, especially territorial sovereignty; actively
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4. Key points for policy implementation after the XIX Congress
For major countries
The major foreign diplomacy is a key point in China's overall foreign affairs strategy,with major implementation directions: (i) establish and consolidate the long-term stablerelationship framework with world power centers, especially the US, Russia, EU and India toexpand China's strategic location; (ii) promoting the formation of a multi-polar, multi-centerworld order, implementing a "coherent" strategy that gathering forces to make China become apowerful polar of the world, incorporating a "continuous" strategy to split, differentiate ofrestraint forces; (iii) actively involved in building a new "play rule" in international relations,especially international economic relations in a way that is more beneficial to China; (iv)building an image of responsible big country, actively participating in shaping global agendasand participating in resolving world security hotspot issues
With the US: China determined that this is the most important pair of relations, leverage
to achieve the goal of becoming a stable, balanced and well-developed overall relationsframework; maintaining stable China-US relations and cooperation is a favorable condition forChina to focus on implementing the strategic development objectives set out at the XIXCongress China's policy measures towards the US will basically continue to inherit the long-standing guidelines, in which the basic strategy is to manage US-China relations within theframework of "both cooperation, both competing "towards China-US relations in orbit "noconflict, no resistance, mutual respect, mutually beneficial cooperation" China continues topursue a two-sided policy and postponing tactics, avoid confronting the US directly; On the otherside, it shows the willingness to cooperate, wishing to share with the US interests,responsibilities and roles in the region, towards the "win-win"; however, even more firm in the
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In specific policy implementation, China will focus on: (i) continue to promote primediplomacy, maintain high-level exchanges with the US, strengthen and expand new strategicdialogue mechanisms established between the two sides 9 to strengthen trust, promotecooperation, control disagreements; (ii) enhancing interwoven benefits and levels of mutualdependence, promoting substantive cooperation with the US in the fields of economics, trade,investment, science and technology, and cultural exchange to make it possible turn on thecooperation side, calming conflicts and disagreements; (iii) settling down or escalating with the
US in a number of economic issues (trade balance, anti-dumping, intellectual property), humanrights democracy, cyber security, North Korean nuclear to stabilize China-US relations; (iv) inthe issue of the East China Sea, the South China Sea, China will implement a strategy to firmlymaintain the "red limit" while compromising and flexible adaptation, without creating an excusefor the US to increase its military presence, avoiding direct challenges, threatening US's
"maritime security interests"; (v) pursue a tougher stance on Taiwan, forcing the US to complywith the "one China" policy, drastically stopping US sales weapons to Taiwan
In general, at the XIX Congress, in the coming time, China-US relations will continue to
be the most influential pair in the area of Asia - Pacific in specific and the world in general Atthe XIX Congress, China acknowledged that in the long term both China and the US tried tolimit direct conflict, promoting cooperation on areas of common interests However, Chinajudges, because the strategic conflict between the two sides will be increasing, so it is unlikelythat China-US will return to the level of collusion and compromise as happened in history, whichmay occur making unpredictable "variables" in bilateral relations, especially those that mightcome from US 's initiative (this prediction of China has come true when the US promotesprotectionism and war trade aimed at China Competition for China-US influence will have aprofound impact on the interests and ways of securing the interests of regional countries, whichwill not force countries to "choose sides" between China or the US, but in some specific issues,countries will face greater difficulties in maintaining a balanced standpoint
9 From April 2017 until now, China - US has established 5 high-level Dialogue mechanisms including: Foreign Affairs - Security Dialogue, General Economic Dialogue, Dialogue on Network Enforcement and Security, Cultural and Social Dialogue, Staff Department Dialogue between the two military.
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cooperation both unfair competition with Russia, including comprehensive cooperation is themain trend, so both sides need gather forces to counterbalance with the US-Japan alliance,promoting the formation of multi-polar world order China's policy motto with Russia is: (i)maintain reliable, stable political relations and implement mechanisms for extensive exchangeand cooperation on diplomacy, security and defense; (ii) expanding substantive cooperation inthe areas of economic - trade, investment, connecting the Belt (economic belt along the SilkRoad) with the Europe-Asian Economic Union, building infrastructure, energy, science andtechnology, military technology, weapons; (iii) strengthening mutual support in matters related
to "core interests" such as national security, sovereignty, territorial integrity; entice Russia tosupport China's position on the South China Sea, East China Sea; (iv) actively coordinate stanceand action in multilateral frameworks (United Nations, G20, APEC etc), global security issuesand regional hotspots such as the North Korean nuclear, Syria , Iran, Afghanistan etc; (v)coordinate the establishment of non-participatory of US in regional economic and securityinstitutions such as CICA, SCO, BRICS
Many argue that the current China-Russia relationship is not yet a form of "alliance" buthas all the elements of a closer cooperation model than the usual strategic partnership frameworkeven somewhat an expression of "close allies" or "almost allies" relations However, the closerelationship between China and Russia is still situational, without strong factors This may only
be a temporary alliance when Russia's interests have not yet conflict with China's interests andthe two sides need to cooperate in response to US and allied control strategies In fact, China-Russia relations still have limitations because of competition between the two countries inCentral Asia (which is the security area of Russia's border) and Russia's internal concerns on theambition of expansion, expanding China's influence in the Far East, recognizing China is a threat
to Russia's strategic interests in these regions in the long term
With Japan: China has always considered Japan a direct competitor on the path to
becoming a regional power Different from the relationship between China and its neighboringcountries in East Asia, China-Japan is a competition between the two major countries in terms ofeconomy, culture and military, reflected in the following: (i) Japan's political, economic, andcultural development model is still a challenge for China in terms of efficiency andattractiveness; (ii) Japan has created a region of significant influence in the region, especially in
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Trang 16Southeast Asia, as a result of long periods of political, economic and cultural development in thisregion; (iii) Japan has strong economic and defense potential to cope with China in maritimeconflicts, and the combined power of US-Japan allies is creating a challenge to the strategy.China's expansion of influence to the East; (iv) in the leadership and people of the two countries,especially China, are still psychologically ill-minded and suspicious of each other.
In response to Japan's aggressive deployment of global vision and global policy with themost important pillar of strengthening alliance with Japan and the US and increasing influence inSoutheast Asia, China will pursue a policy of promoting cooperation and competing for control
On the one hand, it continues to emphasize improving relations with Japan on the basis of fourChinese-Japanese political documents10 taking advantage of mutually beneficial cooperation withJapan in economy, science and technology; on the other side promote strategic competition,scramble for influence with Japan in a more comprehensive way in disputes in the East ChinaSea, Diaoyu/ Senkaku Islands, historical issues, regional initiatives11 and in multilateral forum,increasing restraint and competition to prevent Japanese involvement in the South China Seaissue
With India: China will still maintain the trend of strengthening cooperation and strategic
competition, in which China will strengthen its economic and trade cooperation with India,expand investment in areas where India have large demand is in line with China's interests,boosting the exploitation of India's huge market for Chinese goods and capital; taking economiccooperation as a lever to promote political relations, improving strategic trust, reducing mutualdistrust between the two countries on land border borders, security, democracy and human rights,preventing and minimizing the impact of India's alliance with the US-Japan-Australia (in the
"diamond quadrilateral" of the Indian-Pacific strategy), thus creating an arc of encircling China
At the same time, in response to India's comprehensive diplomatic strategy of "Linking to theWest and the East", China will implement strategic competition in the direction of: (i) on
economic, intensifying competition for influence in South Asia through the initiative "Belt and
road," to boost investment in the two economic corridors China Pakistan and Bangladesh India - China - Myanmar, promoting the connection of a series of seaports in Pakistan,
-Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, (ii) on security, using territorial issues and strengthening relations
of strategic cooperation on defense security with Pakistan to restraint the development of India
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