Creative Involvement: The Transition of China's Diplomacy

With the enhancement of national strength, China's diplomacy has leapt onto a new high ground, basically obtaining the status of a world power. Meanwhile, it has also received a large amount of right and wrong mixed criticism and suggestions from different sides, in the face of a sudden increase in opportunities, pressures, and conflicts. The "creative involvement" in this book is exactly proposed for the future of China's diplomacy. In this book, the author first defines the concept "creative involvement". Different from diplomatic theories in the traditional senses, creative involvement is a kind of diplomatic thinking which encourages more active participation in international affairs and advocates creative solutions. Then the author makes case studies on some events and people which have been of typical significance in China's diplomatic practices since the end of the Cold War, expounding their innovations and limitations. In the third part, the author turns to various supportive propositions, ideas, and theories concerning creative involvement and explains how they are applied to China's future diplomatic practice. Lastly, the author tries to set a number of scenarios, discussing the possible entry points for creative involvement.

This book continues the "creative involvement" proposition put forward in Creative Involvement: A New Direction in China's Diplomacy with new cases and stories to enrich its content. It discusses China's global role, and explores its root cause of formation, development stages, and future direction. The main conclusion is that this role is preliminary and incomplete and needs continuous learning and improvement; China standing on the global high ground needs not only hard power but also wisdom and creativity. On research methods and writing approach, firstly, this book follows the philosophy of "practice first", namely, starting from historical experiences, focusing on practical issues, and exploring objectives and clues through case studies. Secondly, the three parts in the book have different sub-themes, but they are subject to the same thinking, that is, how does China advance toward a central role from the marginal edge of contemporary international system, how to develop doctrines or practices for China's involvement in world affairs, and how to borrow the experiences of others to help China move forward on the global high ground. Combing innovative theoretical idea with practical investigation, this book will not only contribute to contemporary China Diplomatic studies but also appeal to scholars and students of International Relation studies. People who are interested in the rise of China and global governance will also benefit from this book.

Introduction : world politics in transition -- Deng Xiaoping's historical contribution -- Xi Jinping's upgraded version -- The essence of China's social transition -- The social foundation of China 's diplomacy -- Diplomatic orientations for the people -- Key points of diplomatic layout -- Objectives of diplomatic learning -- Analysis of diplomatic investment

pt. 1. Historical coordinates : from the oppressed to a responsible power : the evolution of China's global role -- pt. 2. Empirical study : non-interference policy and foreign aid innovation : a case study of China-African relations -- pt. 3. Comparative analysis : how did the Europeans play their global role? : experiences and reflections.