Xi's proactive foreign policy fruitful

The first year of Chinese President Xi Jinping has been one of the most active periods for China's foreign policy. By championing a proactive foreign policy, Xi has injected enormous energy into China's diplomacy, though he also must ensure that it does not result in unnecessary conflicts with neighboring countries, for he would not like his foreign policy to disrupt his two main goals of economic reforms and eliminating corruption.

While Xi's proactive domestic policies show that he is a leader with a missionary zeal, he has emerged equally powerful on the international scene. In the past year, he has visited 14 countries and attended half-a-dozen of multilateral forums that include several bilateral meetings on the sidelines. His first year in office as president shows a pattern in his foreign visits-they are aimed at evolving a new type of major power relationship.

On a broader level, Xi seeks to project the foreign policy as the locomotive of his Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, improvement of people's livelihoods, overall prosperity, building a better society and strengthening the military.

Xi's first state visit to Russia within a week of taking over as president in March last year had evoked speculation, not least because Beijing and Moscow have been cooperating more closely in many fields and often form the bulwark against the liberal political juggernaut of Western powers. In view of the United States having announced its "pivot to Asia" policy in 2011, China and Russia agreed to "resolutely support each other in efforts to protect national sovereignty, security and development interests". In doing so, China made it clear that it can build on its own sources of support to counterbalance the US' increasing engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.

Xi's visit to Russia just eight days after taking over as China's president prompted observers to ask when he would visit the US. But even his visit to Russia was not a standalone affair. His visits to Tanzania, the Republic of Congo and South Africa, where Xi attended the fifth BRICS summit, were part of his first foreign trip as president. But then Xi didn't choose the US even for his next foreign trip; instead he visited Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico.

Xi and US President Barack Obama ultimately met at a "shirt-sleeve" summit at Sunnylands in California in June. At the meeting, Xi refuted Washington's cyber-terrorism allegations, which was followed by revelations of the US global surveillance program by former National Security Agency operative Edward Snowden. Most media commentaries saw this as a game-changing development for China's new leader.

But in the long term, the Xi-Obama meeting laid the foundation for the development of a "new type of power relationship" in which Washington endorses Beijing's proactive role as it fits into Washington's burden-sharing strategies. An example of this new type of relationship is China's help in shipping out Syria's chemical weapons for destruction.

Xi's first year in office has also seen an improvement in Sino-French ties. In fact, China and France are set to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic ties this year. Sino-French relations suffered a setback in 2008 because former French president Nicolas Sarkozy ignored China's warning and met with the Dalai Lama. But French President Francois Hollande's visit to China in April last year, the first by the leader of a major Western power after Xi took office, changed the equations, which became more favorable after French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's visit to Beijing in December. It seems France, like Italy and Germany, wants to use its economic engagement with China to accelerate its economic turnaround. Next week President Xi will visit Europe, which will no doubt cement the achievements of Sino-European ties last year.

In China's neighborhood, given the impact of the "pivot to Asia" policy of the US, Xi seems to have adopted a two-pronged strategy of engagement and non-compromise. China's announcements of an Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea and a "no-fishing zone" in the South China Sea have been accompanied by a 10-point cooperation program with Vietnam, which talks of security cooperation and joint gas exploration in the Gulf of Tonkin. And China's "charm offensive" of reviving the Silk Road and the "Maritime Silk Road" across Central Asia and Southeast and South Asia has witnessed the signing of series of free trade, investment and infrastructure-building deals.

Xi has also paid attention to China's neighbors, visiting Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan in September. During the trip Xi attended the 8th G20 Summit in St. Petersburg and the 13th Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Bishkek, where he also held several bilateral meetings with other regional leaders.

In October, Xi visited Indonesia and Malaysia and attended the APEC meeting in Bali, where again he held several bilateral meetings. Indeed, the absence of Obama (because of the financial default-forced US government shutdown) in Bali, made Xi the most visible dignitary with positive spin-offs for China-ASEAN relations.

The fact that around the same time Premier Li Keqiang was in Brunei to attend the East Asia Summit, which was followed by his visits to Thailand and Vietnam, made China the flavor of the times.

But more than anything else, the formation of the National Security Commission stands out as the most novel contribution of Xi in the past year. Headed by Xi, Li and Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, the NSC is aimed at strengthening civilian control over the military and security (especially cybersecurity) components of foreign policy.

The above developments give an indication of how China's leadership under Xi will use the foreign and domestic policies to resolve China's formidable challenges, including those concerning Sino-Japanese and Sino-Indian ties.

The author is professor of diplomacy and disarmament at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

(China Daily 03/19/2014 page9)