‘External
risks’: the focus of the next stage in China’s diplomacy, foreign ministry says
- As part of campaign studying Xi Jinping thought
and amid rising tension with the US, foreign ministry says Beijing will
allocate resources to ‘key challenges’
- The article published in state media said
Beijing’s role restoring Saudi-Iran ties drove the ‘tide of
reconciliation’ in the Middle East
Amber Wang in Beijing
2 Jun, 2023
China should focus
on improving its capacity to address “external risks” in its next stage of diplomacy, and
will allocate resources to “key challenges”, according to an article by China’s
foreign ministry on Friday.
The article was
written by the ministry’s Communist Party branch based on its study of Xi
Jinping Thought from two recent publications of the president’s remarks. It is
part of a recent campaign
by the party leadership directing members to study Xi’s political ideology.
It publication in
the party’s flagship newspaper, People’s Daily, comes as relations between China and the United States
are strained on almost every front, from the military, Taiwan and the South
China Sea to technology and human rights issues.
Work defending
national interests had achieved “breakthroughs” under the guidance of Xi’s
thoughts on diplomacy, the article said.
They included
“strong hits against external interference and extreme pressure”, a reference
to Beijing’s handling of ties with US-led Western countries.
The ministry would
put its “focus and resources on dealing with key challenges and improve the
ability to prevent and defuse external risks”, the article stated.
It did not
elaborate on what the “key challenges” were. In opening remarks during the
annual national meeting of China’s top legislature in March, Xi made a rare
reference to the US: “Western countries, led by the United States, have
implemented all-round containment and suppression of China, which has brought
unprecedented severe challenges to the country’s development.”
Recently, European
Union and US officials have called for “de-risking” –
rather than “decoupling” – with China, but the ambiguous word is still
unpalatable for Beijing.
Assistant foreign minister Hua Chunying said on her
Twitter account on Wednesday that the two terms meant the same thing:
“de-risking is in fact decoupling”.
And on Thursday,
ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in response to US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken’s remarks about de-risking, that China was “a source of opportunities,
not risks”, and that the true risks faced by the world were “practice … stoking
bloc confrontation and brewing a new cold war”.
The People’s Daily
article published on Friday hailed the establishment in recent years of formal
diplomatic ties with 10 countries which had cut ties with Taipei before
switching to Beijing as the “consolidated international community’s adherence
to the one-China [policy]”.
It said China had
in effect prevented external forces from interfering and Beijing had realised
Hong Kong’s historic transformation from chaos to order, and from order to
prosperity.
The ministry
“effectively carried out international public opinion struggles, and
continuously defeated attacks and smears against our country [that used]
Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, the epidemic, human rights and other
issues”, it said.
It also praised
Beijing’s role promoting the restoration of ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran
after years of hostility, an effort the article said “drove the ‘tide of
reconciliation’ in the Middle East”.
In a mention of
the Ukraine crisis, the article repeated Beijing’s stance and the role it saw
as promoting peace talks, while hailing its relations with Russia as “more
mature and stronger”.
The article called
for strengthening the “struggle spirit and capability”, a term Xi has
emphasised in recent years.
“Facing the
external risks and challenges, the struggles should have directions and
principles,” the article said, calling for “resolute struggles” with tactics
and flexibility.
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