China’s foreign policy is expanding in scope and depth and now reaches across the globe. Yet its diplomatic efforts focus on its own complex neighborhood. To advance these interests, China’s leaders practice an interlocking set of foreign affairs activities they refer to as “periphery diplomacy.” This report details the main tools Beijing uses to engage the countries with which it shares borders, assesses the campaign’s effectiveness, and lays out the implications for peace and security in Asia.

In view of its size, and vast land and sea boundaries that it shares with its neighbours, China has always regarded its peripheral policy as a crucial aspect of its national security. Such a mentality conforms to Chinese leaders' core belief that a stable external environment — in particular, its immediate region — remains the sine qua non for the continued and sustained rejuvenation of their nation.This book examines China's evolving strategies towards its surrounding peripheries. It is the first book to examine in detail President Xi Jinping's steering of China's peripheral diplomacy. It argues that China pursues an ambitious, omnidirectional regional diplomacy that emphasizes the entire periphery region, and not just specific peripheries. According to this book, Chinese regional policy cannot be properly and adequately understood without taking into account its full breadth, substance and scope. Featuring chapters that explore China's evolving policy in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Central Asia, and addressing new developments under Xi, this book fleshes out the intricacies of how China has been managing its peripheral relationships in Asia under new circumstances and new leadership.

In comparison to the more familiar sources of friction in U.S.-China relations-notably Taiwan and Tibet-surprisingly little attention has been given to how developments along China's unstable periphery could strain and even potentially cause a serious rupture in bilateral relations. Certainly, there has been no systematic effort to examine and compare the most likely cases or to consider how the latent risks can be lessened. As a general observation, scholars and analysts in both countries tend to focus on specific subregions rather than engage in crossregional comparative assessments. With the goal of encouraging a broader assessment of potential sources of friction in U.S-China relations and how they might be mitigated, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) embarked on this study, "Managing Instability on China's Periphery." Each paper considers current sources of instability, potential crisis triggers, U.S. and Chinese interests-where they converge and diverge-and policy options for preventing a major crisis and mitigating the consequences.

There has been a discernable calibration of Chinese foreign policy since the ascension of Xi Jinping to the top leadership positions in China. The operative term here is adjustment rather than renovation because there has not been a fundamental transformation of Chinese foreign policy or "setting up of a new kitchen" in foreign affairs. Several continuities in Chinese diplomacy are still evident. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has not wavered from its overarching strategy of rising through peaceful development. The PRC is still an active participant and leader in, or shaper of, global and regional regimes even as it continues to push for reforms of the extant order, towards an arrangement which it thinks will be less unjust and more equitable. It seeks to better "link up with the international track", perhaps even more so under Xi’s stewardship. Yet amidst these continuities, it is clear that there have been some profound shifts in China’s foreign policy. From the enunciation of strategic slogans such as the "Asian security concept" and "major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics"; the creation of the China-led and initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; the pursuit of Xi’s signature foreign policy initiative, the One Belt One Road; to a purportedly more assertive and resolute defense of China’s maritime territorial interests in East Asia—examples of these foreign policy calibrations (both patent and subtle) abound. In short, this has not been a complete metamorphosis but there are real changes, with important repercussions for China and the international system. The burning questions then are What, Where, How and Why: What are these key foreign policy adjustments? Where and how have these occurred in Chinese diplomacy? And what are the reasons or drivers that inform these changes? This book seeks to capture these changes. Featuring contributions from academics, think-tank intellectuals and policy practitioners, all engaged in the compelling business of China-watching, the book aims to shed more light on the calibrations that have animated China’s diplomacy under Xi, a leader who by most accounts is considered the most powerful Chinese numero uno since Deng Xiaoping.

The expanding scope of China's international activities is one of the newest and most important trends in global affairs. Its global activism is continually changing and has so many dimensions that it immediately raises questions about its current and long-term intentions. This monograph analyzes how China defines its international objectives, how it is pursuing them, and what it means for U.S. economic and security interests.

This book explores how Chinese border provinces have become actors in international relations. Through an analysis of the international actorness – the inherent characteristics of a subnational entity as an international player – of Yunnan and two other geographically peripheral provinces, Guangdong and Guangxi, the domestic, economic, and legislative circumstances that motivated these provinces to conduct transboundary engagements are determined. The book is based on an extensive field study including interviews with those involved in the implementation of Yunnan’s foreign agenda, representatives from province-owned enterprises, universities and think tanks, and officials and experts from the countries neighboring Yunnan. Acknowledging the role of external geopolitics, the authors analyze the efforts of these border provinces to incentivize neighboring countries to cooperate with them on areas of trade, investment, and nontraditional security. Yao Song and Tianyang Liu also observe how border provinces have leveraged their paradiplomatic strengths to affect China’s foreign relations with neighboring countries. This volume will appeal to researchers, academics, and postgraduates in political science, international relations, and diplomacy as well as geography, Southeast Asian politics, political economy, Chinese periphery diplomacy, and nonfederal paradiplomacy.

This book takes an in-depth look at China’s diplomacy in the New Era under the leadership of Xi Jinping. It begins with the analysis of China’s rise and world transformation, the connotations of China’s New Era and its new world ideal as “Community of Shared Future for Mankind” and then presents Xi Jinping’s grand strategy by analyzing his new ideas on the governance of China and global governance, theory and practice of China’s diplomacy in the New Era. Key concepts and innovation cases in China's diplomacy around security, BRI, opening-up strategy, and its strategic approach to the USA are introduced as well, which builds an overview of China's diplomacy.