Conceptualizing Pluralism in Chinese Foreign Policy

• In Event: New Approaches to Studying Chinese Foreign Policy

Abstract

Chinese foreign policy has, more often than not, promoted for the ideas of a pluralistic state-based world order, underpinning the concepts of ‘fairness’ and ‘justice’ to buttress its global governance model of ‘shared community of humankind’. Under the Xi Jinping administration, China has aimed to reform the global governance through these ideas, particularly as it advocates for the expansion of the voices of the weaker states and rebalance the decision-making weight of the West. However, China’s recent growing emphasis on centralisation and nationalistic policies of assertively prioritising its “Chinese Dream” of national rejuvenation, is leading to a divorce in its
international image of an advocator for pluralism. Beijing’s aggressive posture in the disputed regions of Taiwan Strait, East China Sea, and the Line of Actual Control with India, is contradicting the normative value it is preaching through its global governance model. Its disregard towards international law in resolving the dispute in the South China Sea and unilaterally expanding its control over the region is reiterating the discord. Further, its human rights violations in the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, and possible suppression of freedoms in Hong Kong with the implementation of the National Security Law is going against the concepts of ‘fairness’ and ‘justice’. Also, China’s questionable conduct amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly by silencing the early whistle-blowers is reverberating the government’s diminishing tolerance for dissent. Lastly, China’s opaque policies through its Belt and Road Initiative, causing instances of debt traps is negating its own principles it is advocating. It is in this context, that the paper would analyze the conceptualization of Pluralism in Chinese foreign policy, particularly under the administration of Xi Jinping, and evaluate the convergences and divergences in the values and it promotes and its actions in the global order.

Author

• Mrittika MI guha, JNU