Underpinnings of China’s rise: concepts and soft power

This paper puts forward theoretical concepts and principles which formally guide the foreign policy of the successive generations of leadership of the People’s Republic of China since the later era of Deng Xiaoping. It describes the main tenets of these concepts and shows how they influence the approaches to the foreign policy conduct, as well as how they are seen by those who criticise China abroad. The soft power policy is another main subject of this article. Special attention is paid to the so-called Beijing Consensus, or the Chinese model of development, as an alternative to the neoliberal Washington Consensus. The results of the conducted research show that these theoretical guidelines should not be dismissed, since they provide a way to maintain a dialogue with China by using a language and concepts which both China and its regional and Western partners can understand. This could help China to better integrate into the current global order. The conclusion is therefore that disregard of the abovementioned concepts and policies would be a mistake, because through them China declares its willingness to play by the rules of the international system. China has an interest in preserving the system which has led the country to its meteoric rise and provides it a status quo in the matters of power, making it reformist instead of revisionist. Any revisionism must be understood as part of China’s attempts to rebalance the neighbouring regions after its long absence as a regional power.