The “peaceful rise” in the evolution of Chinese diplomacy in recent decades

Abstract

For the Chinese government, one of the main premises of its foreign policy is that the country's development and modernization efforts will be conducted without shaking the structures of the world order, that is, it will be a process conducted in a peaceful and harmonious manner, without pretensions. hegemonic. These premises were presented as a national strategy under the name “peaceful rise”. The term was launched in 2003 by Zheng Bijian, vice-president of the Central Committee's Central Party School, during a Forum on China in the United States, and in 2004 it became part of official Chinese discourse, being used by President Hu Jintao and first Minister Wen Jiabao. This expression, however, was soon replaced by “peaceful development”, a change that may reflect disputes of interests and power between groups within the Chinese leadership and also a correction of the implications of the previous expression. This was consolidated in 2005, when the Chinese government released a document entitled China's Path to Peaceful Development, which described the objectives that the country would pursue and how it would do so. In view of this, analyzing Chinese diplomacy since its constitution as a People's Republic and the variables that involve this strategy of rise/development is of great importance for understanding Chinese foreign policy for the 21st century.