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Kalpit A Mankikar, “The Global Security Initiative: China Buttresses its Defence Diplomacy,” ORF Issue Brief No. 715, June 2024, Observer Research Foundation.
Drivers of China’s Defence Diplomacy
‘Defence diplomacy’ is the pursuit of external military relationships through sustained exchange of army personnel, negotiations, arms control talks, cooperation in military intelligence and military technology, global peace-keeping duties, and activities related to military alliances.[1] For China, the aim of defence diplomacy is to bolster the overall national foreign policy, influence the global security environment, and enable the modernisation of the armed forces.[2] Analysts have also observed that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) deploys military diplomacy to obtain intelligence, improve combat skills, and compare its capabilities vis-à-vis other militaries.[3]
The following paragraphs discuss the drivers of China’s defence diplomacy.
China’s external outlook was for long restrained by former leader Deng Xiaoping’s guiding principle, “tāo guāng yǎng huì (to hide one’s strengths, and bide one’s time)”. In 2003, the Communist Party of China (CPC) proposed the notion of China’s ‘peaceful rise (hépíng juéqǐ)’,[4] and in Hu Jintao’s presidency, the slogans of ‘harmonious world (héxié shìjiè)’ and ‘peaceful development (hépíng fāzhǎn)’ took precedence.[5] Since Xi Jinping became president in 2013, China appears to have abandoned Deng’s dictum. In the past decade, as China has grown to become the world’s second largest economy, Xi has been working to strengthen his country’s military capability, declaring China’s twin goals of “rich nation and strong army.”[6]
In October 2014, the CPC organised a conclave on the theme of “diplomacy towards the periphery”, which resolved to grow China’s influence in the country’s peripheral regions.[7] The gathering also pledged to capitalise on the “strategic opportunity” to realise the rise of China. In the same conclave, the CPC hierarchy declared their ambition for “China to be a defender of the Asia-Pacific order” by 2050.[8] In 2015, a White Paper on Defence urged the PLA to expand military and security cooperation with the armed forces of other nations to create a security environment favourable to China’s peaceful development.[9]
In 2023, Xi completed a decade at the helm of the Central Military Commission (CMC) that oversees the CPC’s vast military. According to Chinese experts, Xi’s reforms, in which the land-based army is being pruned in favour of improving aerial, naval and strategic service branches, constitute the largest overhaul of the PLA since the 1990s.[10] In China’s mind, attaining dominance in the air, space, and cyber domains will allow it to project power and protect its interests overseas.
Xi has also stated that the Party has the right to use force to bring Taiwan back to the fold and complete the “reunification” of China; it is therefore important for the PLA to become a superior fighting force.[11] In parallel, China seeks to delegitimise the United States (US) by portraying its military alliances in Asia as a danger to stability, reinforced by Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s exhortation to US allies such as South Korea to develop a sense of autonomy.[12]
The PLA’s Role in China’s Global Strategy
In 2015, at the All-Army Foreign Affairs Work Conference and the Military Attaches Work Conference, Xi underscored the priorities for the PLA to fully implement the CPC’s key diplomatic policies.[13] He added that military diplomacy has taken on a heightened role in the country’s overall national diplomacy and security strategy.
A turning point came in 2020 as the PLA re-evaluated its role. The fifth plenum of the CPC’s 19th Central Committee assessed that there were “changes not seen in a century”—alluding to America’s decline in the world order—and that it needed to use this opportunity to become a great power.[14] During the plenum, the Party announced that defence modernisation would be among the country’s most important tools to fulfil its goals of “rich nation and strong army”. The Party surmised that such modernisation would boost the PLA’s ability to help fulfill the country’s development goals, defend its sovereignty, and promote national security.[15] According to Junfei Wu of the Hong Kong-based think tank Tianda Institute, it was perhaps the first time that the PLA had been considered with respect to the CPC’s development goals.[16] Song Zhongping, a Chinese analyst tracking the military, posited that the objective of the defence modernisation was to place the Chinese military on a par with the US army by 2027, which marks the PLA’s centenary.[17]
In 2022, as head of the CMC, Xi signed a directive on the PLA’s tasks other than war, in which he emphasised that the military should safeguard the country’s national sovereignty, security, and developmental interests.[18] The PLA, therefore, occupies an elevated position in the CPC’s global grand strategy. Unlike other nations where the national armies serve the state, the PLA owes its allegiance to the CPC.
Under Xi, China’s defence engagements have increased when compared across the metrics of military exercises, interactions of the military brass, and naval port calls.[19] In 2012 and 2013, there were, respectively, 12 and 15 military exercises with other states.[20] The number steadily climbed over the following years, dropping during the COVID-19 pandemic due to restrictions on movement globally.[21]
Fig. 1: PLA’s Military Interactions
Source: National Defence University[22]
Engagements of senior military officers abroad increased from 92 in 2012 to 129 in 2015;[23] and Navy port calls rose from to 17 (2012) to 45 in 2017, the same year that China announced its first overseas naval base in Djibouti in East Africa.[24]
Fig. 2: PLA Military Diplomacy, by Region (2002-2021)
Source: National Defence University[25]
Considering China’s aspiration to be “a defender of the Asia-Pacific order”[26] by 2050, Asia is an important priority for its defence diplomacy engagements that reached over 1,000 between 2002 and 2021. This is followed by Europe and Africa, at 606 and 334, respectively, over the same period.
Fig. 3. PLA Interactions in Asia
Source: National Defence University[27]
Of the 1,104 defence-diplomacy engagements within the continent between 2002 and 2021, China had more with countries in South-East Asia (48 percent of the total number) and South Asia (26 percent) as compared to Central Asia (13 percent) and North-East Asia (13 percent). These numbers are underpinned by geopolitical and economic factors.
In South Asia, for example, Pakistan accounts for a bulk of the PLA’s interactions, mainly due to the India-Pakistan and India-China contestations. Chinese scholars describe the rivalry between India and China as “complex”, given how both perceive themselves to be rising powers.[28] China finds utility in Pakistan in its effort to balance India, with the PLA leveraging the combat experience of the Pakistani Army that has fought against the Indian Army in a number of direct conflicts.[a]
The Indian Ocean and South China Sea are key corridors for China’s energy requirements from West Asia, and China’s trade with Africa that accounts for the strategic salience of South and Southeast Asia for the PLA. In addition to hard power, the Chinese state also seeks to leverage relationships through soft power in the form of humanitarian and relief missions through PLA’s medical vessels such as ‘Peace Ark’. The ship, equipped with advanced medical facilities and having medical professionals among its crew, can tend to nearly 1,000 patients at a time.[29] During the last 16 years, the vessel has visited 43 regions and nations, providing medical treatment to some 250,000 people.[30] Both constant defence engagements and benign soft-power initiatives aid in the PLA’s understanding of the security situation in those regions.[31]
China’s Perceptions of Warfare and Neighbourhood Threats
For the PLA, China faces difficult challenges due to the campaign of containment by the US and its allies.[32] It is of the view that warfare in modern times is dependent on a state’s overall national strength, not just on military capability. China should thus build the PLA’s capabilities through continuous military engagement and exercises with other armies, international tours of duty involving peacekeeping missions, and through induction of advanced technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI).
According to the reading of some Chinese scholars, the aim of American policy towards China has been to suppress it; in the recent years under Biden, the US has worked to attract allies and form blocs in this regard.[33] This includes, according to the PLA, mediating a rapprochement between South Korea and Japan after a hiatus of more than a decade.[34] Chinese analysts view a threat in such a resumption of friendly relations, and is gearing up the PLA to be vigilant amid regular military drills between the US, Japan, and South Korea.[35] The same analysts anticipate that military cooperation in Asia between these three countries could serve as a foundation for the ‘Five-Eyes’ intelligence-sharing arrangement between the US, Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand. The perception is that the US will cement a NATO-like trilateral military bloc and intelligence-pooling arrangement in Asia, and that a “perilous” nuclear arms race in China’s backyard could emerge; Chinese observers point to a recent agreement whereby the US can deploy US nuclear-armed submarines in South Korean waters.[36]
Thus, China sees that amid its contest with the US, the latter is invigorating its historical alliances. In contrast, as China watchers argue, China is a “partial power”[37] since its security presence overseas has not evolved in the same manner as traditional great powers on the metrics of formalising alliances, stationing troops abroad, projecting power globally, or fighting conflicts either on its own or through proxy actors.[38] China has no allies, but its most proximate relationships are with nations like Russia, North Korea and Pakistan that are regarded as “rogue states” with great amount of deficit in trust from the international community.[39] Russia, for instance, is a neighbour with which China has to deal with, but not a partner that it can rely on.[40] Despite Xi signing a no-limits partnership with Russia, analysts say, China must distance itself from Putin in the aftermath of the Ukraine aggression.[41]
Defence Engagement as Bedrock of China’s Global Security Initiative
Chinese strategists argue that in the current scenario there must be an effort to redress the security deficit. China has made a case that influence between ‘East and West’, ‘South and North’ are evolving in a balanced direction, amid a global shift in the balance of power as the West declines and the East rises.[42] There is a “bloc mindset” as far as China is concerned, reinforced by a “new Cold War” with states asserting supremacy through belligerent action. With China’s assessment that American supremacy is in decline and its rise is inevitable, it is moving in to fill the security deficit.
Soon after the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, Xi announced the Global Security Initiative (GSI) in April 2022, referencing the concept of “indivisible security”—i.e., that the security of one nation cannot come at the expense of another’s; he warned that there were efforts to build “small circles” (read: power blocs) or provoke conflict along ideological lines.[43] A year later, China announced plans to train 5,000 security personnel from developing countries over the next five years.[44]
Beijing plans to create more international platforms for exchange and cooperation to address security challenges in areas such as counterterrorism, cybersecurity, biosecurity, and emerging technologies, with a view to improving governance capacity in non-traditional security. China has announced more exchanges and cooperation among university-level military and law-enforcement academies. China’s efforts to boost multilateral and bilateral security training programmes have expanded in recent years, spreading to countries in the Pacific Islands and Central Asia. Through such capacity-building programmes, China looks to build links with the security and military elites in other nations.
Linking Security and Economic Cooperation
While defence diplomacy is being consolidated through institutionalised mechanisms like the GSI, there is also a greater resonance of the national security in China’s domestic discourse. Xi has emphasised averting risks to China’s modernisation and incorporating the security element in every domain as some of the requirements of his conceptualisation of national security.[45] Xi launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, which Xue Li from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences then stated was a route for China to transform itself from a regional power with global influence to a global power possessing comprehensive strength.[46] Wang Yiwei from China’s Renmin University compared BRI to the US’s post-Second World War Marshall Plan,[b] stating that it was an opportunity for China to use its economic growth for the greater good of the global community as opposed to Western-style globalisation that was unsustainable.[47]
As Chinese human capital and corporate entities began to operate in foreign lands, Guo Xiaobing from China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations posited that it was imperative for China to improve its capability to protect its nationals residing overseas since it had a bearing on China’s economic security.[48] This must also be seen in context with Xi’s 2022 directive, discussed earlier in this brief, that the security establishment should protect China’s development interests.[49] Indeed, there have been reported attacks on Chinese nationals in recent times. In April 2022, three Chinese educators attached to Karachi’s Confucius Center, a Chinese-language training institute, were killed in a suicide bombing for which a group from Pakistan’s Balochistan province claimed responsibility.[50] Local groups are said to be behind several attacks on Chinese nationals working in Balochistan, where the Gwadar port and other large-scale infrastructure projects backed by China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor are located. Earlier, in November 2021, the Solomon Islands witnessed disturbances in a locality predominantly populated by Chinese nationals, following allegations that then Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare was influencing legislative voting using Chinese funds.[51]
These incidents show that China cannot avoid getting entangled in local political currents as it expands to new territories, and its interests may collide with those of other actors. This also means that China cannot rely solely on the assurances of foreign governments to secure its economic interests. Thus, during the BRI Security Cooperation Dialogue in 2017, Guo Shengkun, then Minister for Public Security floated the idea that countries which have signed up for the BRI should set up common security and cooperative security mechanisms for the projects.[52] The Ministry of Public Security has been tasked with creating a law-enforcement cooperation mechanism “bearing Chinese characteristics”.[53]
In Solomon Islands, China has announced that its Export–Import Bank is providing US$66 million for building communication infrastructure, with the project being executed by Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. Port Honiara in the archipelago is being developed by the China Civil Engineering Construction Company, a state-owned enterprise.[54] The two sides also signed a security cooperation agreement in July 2023, under which they pledged to institute and improve high-level exchanges between governments, legislatures, political outfits and sub-national authorities, and establish a mechanism to share governance best practices and enhance “political trust”.[55] The deal also seeks to improve cooperation on law enforcement and security issues, with China pledging to assist Solomon Islands in its policing and law-enforcement capacity.
China’s security cooperation is also being driven by competitive international politics as seen in the case of Vietnam. In November 2023, Hanoi and Tokyo raised their ties to one of ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’.[56] In September 2023, US President Joe Biden made a state visit to Vietnam, following which ties with Washington were elevated to a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’.[57] Xi, for his part, travelled to Vietnam in December 2023 to push for cooperation on security.[c]
Japan’s and the US’s efforts to woo Vietnam pose challenges to China more so because the two Communist nations fought a war in 1979, and there were border skirmishes in 1988 too. The agreement that China and Vietnam inked in December 2023 foresees high-level law enforcement exchanges and institutes a dialogue mechanism for political and security issues at the level of Deputy Minister.[58] The agreement signed between the two nations refers to “risks of colour revolution” posed by “hostile forces”, which will be combatted through the installation of a hotline between the public security departments of the two countries.[59] It is expected to boost cooperation between China’s law enforcement and security departments and Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security in the fields of personnel training, security, and intelligence-sharing.[60]
To be sure, there is greater awareness about the implications of China pushing security cooperation in different parts of the world. In 2022, at the Raisina Dialogue, India’s premier conclave on geopolitics, Andrew Shearer, Director General of Australia’s Office of National Intelligence, warned that China’s push for security cooperation with nations like Solomon Islands could potentially lead to greater Chinese military presence around Australia, and that China was organising diplomatic, military, and economic instruments to draw smaller countries into its fold.[61] At a time when China is enhancing its defence diplomacy through initiatives like the GSI, there is backlash building against the activities of Chinese agencies operating beyond national jurisdictions.
There is now evidence of the global reach of Chinese law-enforcement agencies, with nearly 40 Ministry of Public Security officials being charged by the US government of targeting people residing in the US via social media for advocating views that are not in consonance with those of the Chinese regime, engaging in disruptive events marking the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, and for advocating for democracy on the mainland.[62] In South Korea, intelligence agencies and police have launched an enquiry into the functioning of illegal police stations in Seoul and Jeju Island that are said to be acting at the behest of the Chinese government.[63] Meanwhile, in Thailand, the government’s plan to deploy Chinese police patrols to improve tourist confidence has led to fears that it may be used to target dissidents.[64]
Conclusion
There is hardly any doubt that security plays a bigger role in China’s grand strategy in the Xi era, on account of the following factors: First, the changing nature of the Party-state’s army, which after reforms seeks to project its capability beyond China’s borders. There is also an expectation from Xi that the PLA must become more relevant in military diplomacy, safeguarding development interests and sovereignty.
The PLA’s external engagements are also changing across metrics of military exercises, interactions of the military brass, and naval port calls. Greater engagement through defence diplomacy allows Chinese policymakers to gain better insights into the security environment in different regions. Chinese strategists have written extensively on their perceptions of threats posed by the Western-led alliance and its determination of strengthening alliances in Asia. China watchers, meanwhile, argue that China is a partial power and its security presence overseas has not evolved in the same manner as the traditional powers on the metrics of formalising alliances, stationing troops abroad, projecting power globally, or fighting in conflicts on its own or through proxy actors.
The favoured narrative in China is that the West is declining and the East is rising, and that there are deficits in security and governance due to the decline of the Western-led order. It is moving to fill the security void, through the Global Security Initiative which seeks to train law-enforcement personnel in developing nations. Further, over the last decade, China’s economic interests have gone global with the expanding footprint of its flagship BRI. China is weaving in economic, military, and diplomatic elements into its grand strategy, and there is greater contestation in the international system to rework the balance of power. Thus, through GSI that is built on defence diplomacy, China seeks to connect economic and security cooperation, and craft alternative frameworks to expand its influence through domains of law-enforcement capacity building and defence.
Kalpit A Mankikar is Fellow, China, with ORF’s Strategic Studies Programme.
The author thanks Satish Tezaa for his assistance in tabulating the graphs and diagrams used in this brief.
Endnotes
[a] India and Pakistan have had wars against each other in 1948, 1965, 1971, and 1999.
[b] After World War II, President Harry Truman promulgated the Economic Recovery Act in 1948 to provide assistance to rebuild economic infrastructure in conflict-ravaged Europe.
[c] Xi travelled to only three other nations in 2023—South Africa, Russia, and the US.
[1] Military Matters Management Committee, Military Usage of the PLA, (Academy of Military Sciences Press, 2011), pp. 1063.
[2] Jin Canrong and Wang Bo, “On Theory of Military Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics [有关中国特色军事外交的理论思考],” Pacific Studies Report [太平洋学报] no. 5 (2015), 22, www.cssn.cn/jsx/201601/P020160104312124234558.pdf.
[3] Kenneth Allen, Phillip C. Saunders, and John Chen, Chinese Military Diplomacy, 2003-2016: Trends and Implications, China Strategic Perspectives 11 (Washington, DC: NDU Press, July 2017), pp 9-10.
[4] David Shambaugh, China’s Leaders: From Mao to Now (Polity, 2021), pp. 248.
[5] Shambaugh, China’s Leaders: From Mao to Now, pp. 246-248.
[6] “中国共产党第十九届中央委员会第五次全体会议公报 [Communique of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China],” People’s Daily, October 29, 2020, http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2020/1029/c1001-31911511.html
[7] Howard W. French, Everything Under the Heavens (Vintage, 2017), pp. 260.
[8] French, Everything Under the Heavens, pp. 260-262.
[9] Information Office of the State Council, “China’s Military Strategy,” May 2015, People’s Republic of China Ministry of Defense, http://eng.mod.gov.cn/Database/WhitePapers/2015-05/26/content_4586715.htm.
[10] Ziyu Zhang, “China’s military structure: what are the theatre commands and service branches?,” SCMP, August 15, 2021, https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3144921/chinas-military-structure-what-are-theatre-commands-and-service.
[11] New China TV, “LIVE: 20th CPC National Congress opens in Beijing,” YouTube video, 1:53 min, October 16, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j66t74QvZs.
[12] “从乌克兰危机看美国在国际舞台上扮演的卑劣角色 [Examining America’s role on international stage from Ukraine crisis],” PLA Daily, March 21, 2022, http://eng.chinamil.com.cn/view/2022-03/21/content_10142308.htm; “王毅：中日韩要知道自己的根在哪里，头发染得再黄、鼻子修得再尖也变不成西方人, [Wang Yi: China, Japan and South Korea need to know where their roots are, you won’t become Westerners],”IFeng News, July 4, 2023, https://i.ifeng.com/c/8R8v7AihJJg
[13] “习近平：进一步开创军事外交新局面, [Xi pushes for new situation in military diplomacy],” Communist Party of China News, January 29, 2015, http://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2015/0129/c64094-26474947.html
[14] “中国共产党第十九届中央委员会第五次全体会议公报 [Communique of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China]”
[15] “中国共产党第十九届中央委员会第五次全体会议公报 [Communique of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China]”
[16] Josephine Ma and William Zheng, “China vows to build ‘fully modern army’ by 2027 as Beijing policy meeting ends on defiant note,” SCMP, October 29, 2020, https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3107686/policy-meeting-ends-defiant-note-chinese-leadership-insists.
[17] Ma and Zheng, “China vows to build ‘fully modern army’ by 2027 as Beijing policy meeting ends on defiant note”
[18] “中央军委主席习近平签署命令发布《军队非战争军事行动纲要》[Xi signs order to on ‘outline of military operations other than war,” Xinhua, June 13, 2022, http://www.news.cn/politics/leaders/2022-06/13/c_1128737844.htm
[19] Phillip C. Saunders, “China’s Military Diplomacy: Trends and Implications” (testimony to U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Washington DC, USA, January 26, 2023) https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/Phillip_Saunders_Testimony.pdf.
[20] Saunders, “China’s Military Diplomacy: Trends and Implications”
[21] Saunders, “China’s Military Diplomacy: Trends and Implications”
[22] Saunders, “China’s Military Diplomacy: Trends and Implications”
[23] Saunders, “China’s Military Diplomacy: Trends and Implications”
[24] Phillip C. Saunders, “China’s Military Diplomacy: Trends and Implications” (testimony, Washington DC, January 26, 2023), U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/Phillip_Saunders_Testimony.pdf
[25] Saunders, “China’s Military Diplomacy: Trends and Implications”
[26] French, Everything Under the Heavens, pp. 260-262.
[27] Saunders, “China’s Military Diplomacy: Trends and Implications”
[28] Interview with Dr. Huo Wenle, assistant professor at Center for South Asian Studies, Shandong University on January 18, 2024.
[29] “Explainer: What is China's Peace Ark hospital ship?,” Xinhua, June 1, 2023, https://english.news.cn/20230601/9c5ce567ed574d959c3a71dbc40fa070/c.html
[30] “Explainer: What is China's Peace Ark hospital ship?”
[31] Canrong and Bo, “On Theory of Military Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics [有关中国特色军事外交的理论思考]”
[32] “扣牢中心任务 聚力备战打仗努力开创一体化国家战略体系和能力建设新局面 - 汪海江 [Focus on preparing for war, create new situation of integrated national strategic system and capacity building, says Wang Haijiang],” Study Times, May 15, 2023, https://paper.cntheory.com/html/2023-05/15/nw.D110000xxsb_20230515_1-A1.htm
[33] Wang Hui, “- 2天3场会见，布林肯来华谈的怎么样? [Three meetings in two days. How was Blinken’s visit to China?],” Guancha, July 20, 2023, https://www.guancha.cn/internation/2023_06_19_697493_s.shtml.
[34] Chen Yue and Zhang Yuanyong , “美日韩强化军事同盟严重冲击地区安全局势 [The strengthening of military alliance between the US, Japan & South Korea has affected regional security], PLA Daily, May 8, 2023, http://www.81.cn/wj_208604/16222684.html.
[35] Chen Yue and Zhang Yuanyong , “美日韩强化军事同盟严重冲击地区安全局势 [The strengthening of military alliance between the US, Japan & South Korea has affected regional security], PLA Daily, May 8, 2023, http://www.81.cn/wj_208604/16222684.html.
[36] US Embassy in Republic of Korea, https://kr.usembassy.gov/042723-washington-declaration/
[37] David Shambaugh, China Goes Global, (Oxford, 2013), pp 269- 271.
[38] Shambaugh, China Goes Global, pp 269.
[39] Shambaugh, China Goes Global, pp. 7.
[40] Shambaugh, China Goes Global, pp. 83.
[41] Hu Wei, “Possible Outcomes of the Russo-Ukrainian War and China’s Choice,” US-China Perception Monitor, March 12, 2022, https://uscnpm.org/2022/03/12/hu-wei-russia-ukraine-war-china-choice/
[42] “和平与发展的历史潮流不可阻挡（思想纵横）--理论 [Historical trend of peace and development unstoppable],” Communist Party of China News, November 2, 2023, http://theory.people.com.cn/n1/2023/1102/c40531-40108404.html
[43] “习近平在博鳌亚洲论坛2022年年会开幕式上的主旨演讲 [Xi’s speech at Boao Forum for Asia 2022 annual conference],” Communist Party of China News, April 21, 2022, http://cpc.people.com.cn/n1/2022/0421/c64094-32405039.html.
[44] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The People’s Republic of China, February 2, 2023,
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjbxw/202302/t20230221_11028348.html
[45] “Xi stresses building holistic national security architecture,” Xinhua, December 12, 2020,
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-12/12/c_139584669.htm
[46] French, Everything Under the Heavens, pp. 258.
[47] Wang Yiwei, The Belt and Road Initiative: What will China offer the world in its rise (New World Press, 2016), pp 1, 26-27.
[48] Yang Sheng and Cui Fandi, “China to upgrade security guarantee,” Global Times, October 30, 2020, https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202010/1205141.shtml.
[49] “中央军委主席习近平签署命令发布《军队非战争军事行动纲要》[Xi signs order to on ‘outline of military operations other than war”
[50] “China condemns attack on shuttle van of Confucius center,” Xinhua, April 26, 2022, https://english.news.cn/20220426/bf3369c6277746de945748bfd6b6ab00/c.html.
[51] Maria Siow, “In Solomon Islands, a calm after riots, but suspicions of China linger,” SCMP, January 24, 2022, https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3164236/solomon-islands-calm-after-riots-suspicions-china-linger.
[52] “一带一路”安全合作对话会在京举行孟建柱会见代表团团长 [BRI security co-operation dialogue organised),” Xinhua, May 4, 2017, http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2017-05/04/c_1120919833.htm
[53] “全国公安国际合作工作会议在京召开 [National Public Security International Cooperation Working Conference],” Xinhua, February 7, 2017, http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2017-02/07/c_1120426453.htm.
[54] Rakin Rahman, “China firm obtains Solomon Islands port bid, US monitors closely,” Port Technology.org, March 24, 2023, https://www.porttechnology.org/news/china-firms-obtains-solomon-islands-port-bid-us-monitors-closely/.
[55] “Joint Statement on establishing comprehensive strategic partnership featuring mutual respect and common development for new era between China and Solomon Islands,” Xinhua July 10, 2023
https://english.news.cn/20230710/3a7a2dee644747d4be66dff21050bfc3/c.html
[56] Prime Minister’s Office of Japan, Government of Japan, https://japan.kantei.go.jp/content/000139562.pdf
[57] White House, United States Government, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/09/11/joint-leaders-statement-elevating-united-states-vietnam-relations-to-a-comprehensive-strategic-partnership/#:~:text=September%2011%2C%202023-,JOINT%20LEADERS'%20STATEMENT%3A%20ELEVATING%20UNITED%20STATES%2DVIETNAM%20RELATIONS,TO%20A%20COMPREHENSIVE%20STRATEGIC%20PARTNERSHIP&text=On%20September%2010%2C%202023%2C%20General,Biden%20Jr.
[58] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The People’s Republic of China, December 13, 2023, https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/zyxw/202312/t20231213_11201756.shtml
[59] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The People’s Republic of China, December 13, 2023, https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/zyxw/202312/t20231213_11201756.shtml
[60] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The People’s Republic of China, December 13, 2023, https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/zyxw/202312/t20231213_11201756.shtml
[61] ORF, “"China is using all Instruments of Power: Private Companies and Diplomats to Establish its Sway," YouTube video, 51.59 min, April 26, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1_A_Ch13JM.
[62] US Justice Department, United States government, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/40-officers-china-s-national-police-charged-transnational-repression-schemes-targeting-us.
[63] “Nationwide probe launched into secret Chinese ‘police stations’ in South Korea,” Korean Herald, June 16, 2023, http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20230616000517
[64] “Thailand’s plan to deploy Chinese police patrol sparks outcry,” The Straits Times, November 13, 2023, https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/chinese-police-to-patrol-in-thailand-to-boost-tourist-confidence
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Kalpit A Mankikar is a Fellow with Strategic Studies programme and is based out of ORFs Delhi centre. His research focusses on China specifically looking ...
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