From isolation to global cooperation. An overview of China’s Foreign Policy in the post-Cold War era

Barbara Onnis

2023-01-01

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Abstract

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the transformation of Chinese foreign policy in the post-1989 era, with a special focus on the ‘grand strategy’ adopted by the communist leaders as a response both to the domestic political challenge and the end of the bipolar system. The new approach implied, among the others, the abandoning of the former aversion to multilateralism; the adoption of a less conflicting and more constructive approach to regional and global problems; a growing participation in international governance; a ‘skillful’ management of contingent political-economic crises, followed by the creation of new multilateral mechanisms. The turn to multilateralism is in fact considered one of the few real radical changes in the post-Tiananmen era and a key element in the ‘diplomatic face of China’s grand strategy’ designed ‘to engineer the country’s rise to the status of a true great power that shapes, rather than simply responds to, the international system.