Xi Jinping's Foreign Policy and the Foreign Relations Law

• In Event: Chinese Politics under Xi Jinping's Rule

Abstract

This is the first time that China’s foreign policy guideline is codified. The chapter focuses on Xi Jinping’s three initiatives on civilization, security and development codified in the FRL. The civilization initiative calls for a pluralistic and diverse world order, claiming all civilizations are splendid. This might create more global conflicts and fuel the Chinese enthusiasm for a Sinocentric order. Xi’s security initiative is inspired by Sun Tzu’s "Art of War" that is realist in an indirect way and the Hundred-Year Humiliation that drives China’s desire to reach to the top of the world again. Although Xi pledges confirming to the universal values and the UN Charter on an abstract level, he insists on interpreting those universal values on his own terms, e.g., his “freedom” does not include freedom of speech, his “democracy” does not include popular elections, and his “human rights” does not include people’s political rights. This law also makes supremacy of the Chinese constitution over international law. The development initiative that promotes free trade against sanctions and “protectionism” by the West is a result of the changed economic structure between China and the West and the discrepancy in the speed of the two economies. Instead of being a low-end products producer in the 1980s, China now can compete with the West on high-end products, taking advantage of a late comer that can use the most advanced technology invented by the West without itself investing much in basic research.

Author

• Shiping Hua, University of Louisville