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Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
Author : I. Denisov
Senior Research Associate, Center for East Asia and Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies, In-
stitute of International Studies, Moscow State Institute (University) of International Relations, Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
XI JINPING has been more successful than his predecessor, Hu Jin-
tao, in consolidating China's system of government. The domestic po-
litical agenda of the "Xi-Li rule" with the institutions and mechanisms
that it has brought into being has taken even less time to put together
than observers generally expected. This is the result of Xi's style of
governance and new and more difficult challenges that have needed
prompt reactions, chiefly internal Communist Party issues that had ob-
viously been the new leader's priorities until mid-2013 or even later.
Proposals for revising China's foreign policy course were, furthermore,
raised by leading military experts in articles, interviews and speeches
in 2012.
Whereas the year 2008 was, as it were, a dividing line, a point where Chinese foreign policy began
to show an increasing hardline trend, the preplanned transition in 2012-2013 to "fifth generation"
governance was expected by some experts to put a logical end to debates on the practical value
of "taoguangyanghui."
Propaganda and the explanation of the essence of the Chinese Dream should be closely linked
to the concept of modern Chinese values. Modern Chinese values are socialist values with Chi-
nese characteristics.
At theoretical level, China continues to link its foreign policy objectives to domestic issues, but
today this linkage is more sophisticated and more holistic.
The majority of Chinese experts have a rather low opinion of the country's general standards
of scholarly foreign policy research. "Let's see how many rubbishy articles are produced yearly
by leading Chinese journals on international relations. This immediately makes clear how serious
is the problem of superficiality and separation from reality in this kind of research," Professor
Chen Qi of Tsinghua University said during a debate.15
China will gradually be trying on the attire of a great power, and this may dash the hopes of the
nationalistic part of Chinese society. It is fair to surmise that the government will closely watch
both liberal pro-Western and nationalist currents in China in order to avert destabilization such
as anti-Japanese demonstrations in 2005 and 2012.
One way to avoid errors and stereotypes in trying to understand Xi's global "Chinese dream" is
to give a fresh impetus to Track Two diplomacy. This should be a concrete and practical dialogue
between persons who would need serious references to be entrusted with the task. The Russian
Chinese Council of Sages, set up in 2014, may become one such high-level floor. Russia-related
projects will be among the tasks of renovated or newly set-up Chinese think tanks, and so it is
worth starting to shape an agenda that would meet the strategic interests of Russia and China in
the rapidly changing architecture of international relations.
Evolution of China's Foreign Policy Under Xi Jinping