Contradictions in China’s Foreign Policy

Contradictions in China’s Foreign Policy

http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/12/13/contradictions-in-china-s-foreign-policy/gw4w

Douglas H. Paal Article December 13, 2013 

Summary

China wants the benefits of a charm offensive with its neighbors, but it also wants to guard its far-flung territorial claims. It cannot do both.

You may have missed the funeral, but China’s new leadership has quietly buried the admonition of former leader Deng Xiaoping that as China rises in wealth and power it should maintain a low profile (known as taoguang yanghui). In its place, the new leadership is advancing a more proactive diplomacy in surrounding regions. President Xi Jinping is displaying self-confidence that seems to match the mood of the times in China, one of renewed nationalism and self-assertion. In most neighboring capitals this development will be viewed positively but warily; in Manila and Tokyo, less positively.
The issue is that China wants the benefits of a charm offensive with its neighbors, but it also wants to jealously guard its far-flung territorial claims. It cannot do both.