[KJM Varma]
BEIJING, 29 Dec: China has gained more “strategic autonomy” and emerged as a “responsible major country” with enhanced international influence under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, according to a high-level meeting on the 2023 foreign policy outcomes held in Beijing.
Jinping delivered an “important speech” at the central conference on work relating to fdoreign affairs held here on Wednesday and Thursday, an official press release issued at the end of the meeting said.
Presided over by Premier Li Qiang, the conference was attended by top officials of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), the military and China’s envoys and senior consular officials from all over the world, besides Foreign Minister Wang Yi, it said.
“We have opened up new prospects in major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, and gained much more strategic autonomy and initiative in our diplomacy,” the meeting said about China’s diplomatic progress in the outgoing year.
“China has become a responsible major country with enhanced international influence, stronger capacity to steer new endeavours, and greater moral appeal,” it said.
While the details of Jinping’s address were not revealed, he was reported to have reviewed China’s diplomatic relations with various countries, including with the US, amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the raging Middle East conflict and frozen ties with India over the military standoff in eastern Ladakh.
In his speech, Jinping systematically reviewed the historic achievements and valuable experience of major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era, the press release said.
He elaborated the international environment and historical mission of China’s external work in the new journey, and made comprehensive plans for China’s external work at present and in the future, it said.
Jinping, 70, the only Chinese leader after ruling Communist Party founder Mao Zedong to continue in power for an unprecedented third five-year term after emerging as “core leader” of the party, has been pushing for China’s diplomatic and military clout across the world since he took over power in 2012.
His first two terms focussed on beefing up the military with massive defence outlays and aggressive diplomacy with his USD trillion dollar ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ (BRI) – the mega infrastructure development project which also earned the tag of ‘debt diplomacy’.
His third term is marked by China’s economic slowdown, which observers say may put limitations on China’s overseas spending.
After prolonged diplomatic tensions with the US, Jinping last month had a surprisingly fruitful summit with his American counterpart Joe Biden, where the two leaders agreed on cooling down the increasingly tense relations between the two countries amid the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the Israel-Hamas war in which both the countries took divergent stance.
While Jinping subsequently held high-profile summits with Japanese Prime Minster Fumio Kishida, leaders of the EU and his recent charm offensive visit to Vietnam, he is yet to come up with any initiatives to improve tense relations with India.
The relations were frozen after the May 2020 military actions by China in eastern Ladakh leading to a prolonged standoff between the two militaries. (PTI)