A Steadfast Global Outlook

By An Gang

High expectations follow the announcement of China’s seasoned new foreign policy team

With the completion of the transition of the Chinese state leadership and the reshuffling of the cabinet during the nation’s annual parliamentary session just concluded on March 17, China’s new foreign policy team has come to the fore. Former Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was promoted as state councilor in charge of foreign affairs while Wang Yi, a veteran diplomat and former vice Foreign Minister, was named new foreign minister.

Previously, Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Zhang Yesui, was appointed as executive vice foreign minister after completing his post in Washington. In the meantime,Cui Tiankai, vice Foreign Minister in charge of Sino-U.S. relations, is slated to go to Washington to assume his new post as Chinese ambassador.

The new lineup of the Chinese foreign policy team highlights the new generation of Chinese leadership’s expectations for seeking improvement while maintaining stability in China’s foreign relations.

Yang Jiechi, State Councilor, born in Shanghai in May 1950,PhD in history. Served as minister at the Chinese Embassy in the United States, director general of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs, assistant foreign minister, vice foreign minister, Chinese ambassador to the United States and foreign minister from 2007-13.

Strategic thinking

Yang is a senior diplomat known for his learned and refined temperament, moderate style as well as careful and strategic thinking. He has long been engaged in work relating to Sino-U.S. relations. During his tenure as Chinese ambassador to Washington from 2000-04, the Sino-U.S.relationship hit a low point following an incident involving a mid-air collision of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet near south China’s Hainan Island in 2001, but the relationship was soon after restored.

Having served three separate stints in the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Yang has wide social connections in the United States. Many of his U.S. friends affectionately refer to him as Tiger Yang—a reference to one of the Chinese characters in his given name.

Since April 2007, Yang has served as foreign minister. During his term, Chinese diplomacy began to settle into its role as a global power on the world stage. The awareness of diplomacy in serving the public was significantly enhanced.

At his last press conference as foreign minister on March 9, Yang said he felt pride in witnessing the rising strength of the motherland and its rising international status over the past several years. He added that he is especially pleased to see China’s relations with all other countries forging ahead and that China is gaining many more friends in the world.

In the last six years, China’s foreign policy team has overcome many thorny issues and resolved a host of crises. Though China is faced with a complicated international situation compounded by a fickle domestic social environment, the team has firmly stuck to China’s diplomatic philosophy and principles, largely maintained the stability of Sino-U.S. relations, managed maritime disputes with other countries and promoted the peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Yang’s foresight and willpower played an important role throughout the process. Facing the aggressive strategic pivot of the United States to Asia, Yang believed that it does not necessarily mean that China and the United States would confront each other in the region;instead, he said the two countries will likely find a path toward a new type of power relationship.

Asian focus

Similar to Yang, Wang is also a career diplomat who worked his way up. When he was young,he lived and worked on a farm in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province for eight years.Since beginning his diplomatic career by joining the Chinese Foreign Ministry in 1982, Wang has been long engaged in affairs with neighboring countries.

In his role as a senior official in charge of East Asian affairs, China’s good-neighbor diplomacy has made headway. He served at a time when the concept of regional cooperation gradually changed Chinese diplomacy pattern. Initial progress in the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, the start and development of the ASEAN Plus China and ASEAN Plus China, Japan and South Korea cooperation mechanisms, and the signing of the China-ASEAN Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea were all accomplished with the great efforts of Wang.

Wang’s successful tenure as China’s ambassador to Japan from 2004-07 is another accomplishment. His dedicated and skillful work to bridge the two peoples, enhance cultural exchanges between the two countries and elaborate China’s position on historical issues has left a strong impression on local citizens.

As China’s new foreign minister, Wang is in his prime. The universal perception of people working in the diplomatic circle is that Wang is a diplomat with deep thinking, a broad vision and a pioneering spirit. Those characteristics were also fully demonstrated in his dealing with relations across the Taiwan Straits while he headed the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council.

From August 1997 to February 1998, Wang studied at Georgetown University in the United States, during which time he witnessed the Internet revolution take place in that country,observing the new vigor of the world’s sole superpower as well as the huge bubble it created.What Wang witnessed during that time had a direct influence on his view of the United States.

Whether he was acting as the Chinese representative to the six-party talks or minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council,Wang always attached great importance to communication and coordination between China and the United States, bringing about effective and fruitful work to that end. Wang has visited Washington many times for talks on important issues. Reaching consensus and tacit understanding and avoiding confrontation or conflicts over complicated issues concerning the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan and South Asia serve the long-term and common strategic interests of both China and the United States.The effective communication over the North Korean nuclear issue has paved the way for the two countries to develop a cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit.

Great hope

The Chinese diplomatic team led by Yang and Wang is a result of the careful consideration and serious arrangement at the top of the Chinese leadership. People have every reason to expect that the new team will forge ahead with prudent strategies and sophisticated tactics.

It is also expected that the new diplomatic team has the ability to deal effectively with the United States as well as with surrounding countries. Chinese diplomacy is rooted in Asia. The stability and effectiveness of China’s neighboring strategy are now challenged and tested by the U.S. strategic shift to the Asia Pacific, maritime disputes with surrounding countries, icy relations with Japan, as well as the North Korean nuclear crisis. Building a much more stable neighborhood remains an arduous task for the new team, which will require being innovative while upholding tradition.

Some tend to label Yang a U.S. expert and Wang an old Japan hand. While this characterization is understandable given their past work,it is nevertheless over-simplistic. Both should be considered diplomats with a global perspective.

The future decade is a critical stage for China’s development—a point at which it will either move forward or fall behind. Whether the country can look objectively at the trend of globalization, adhere to the road of peaceful development and handle relations with other countries in a meaningful way should be on equal footing with domestic development and the building of national strength.

The new Chinese diplomatic team has a responsibility to fulfill the historical mission of creating a more favorable external environment for China’s renewal. To live up to expectations,the new team led by Yang and Wang are obligated to further promote Chinese diplomacy in light of China’s reform and development as well as world peace and cooperation. ■

Wang Yi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, born in Beijing in October 1953, Master of Arts in economics. Served as minister counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Japan, director general of the Department of Asian Affairs, assistant foreign minister, vice foreign minister as well as Chinese ambassador to Japan. Also served as minister of the State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office from 2008-13 .