China’s Foreign Policy and Ideational Narratives: Key Trends and Major Challenges

Abstract

When Xi Jinping was designated as the head of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 2012, many analysts and observers argued that China’s foreign policy entered a new phase. In less than one term in power, as the ‘core leader’ of the second world largest economy Xi Jinping has managed to reshape China’s image and behaviour at home and abroad. He has reinterpreted the relation with the superpower United States through what he called a ‘New Model of Major-Country Relations’. He promoted the so-called ‘China Dream’, a concept calling for the ‘rejuvenation’ of the Chinese nation. Xi Jinping, through the complex bureaucratic machine of China’s state apparatus, was able to unify political elites and party officials, together with some major public intellectuals and academics to marry and support the project expected to return China to the kind glory and grandeur the country enjoyed since the Roman Empire: the ‘New Silk Road’, better known as the ‘One Belt One Road’ (OBOR) initiative. However, even though support of Chinese ideational narratives has grown vis-a-vis the more significant role China plays at the international level, serious gaps persist as regards to how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) practically conducts its foreign policy in terms of international rules and standards already set by other countries. In fact, with regards to specific issues and areas such as climate change, nuclear deterrence or cyber-security, leaders in Beijing are still struggling to reach a comprehensive understanding in line with the ideas and policies supported by the majority of countries in the West. As a consequence, this chapter concludes that only combing Chinese ideational narratives of world order with a practical understanding of how such policies are discussed at the international level, will allow China to play a growing role in the realm of global governance.