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‘Two sessions’ 2024: China should end its low-profile diplomatic approach, senior envoy says
- Ambassador to France Lu Shaye said China should no longer ‘hide its capacities and bide its time’, a diplomatic approach first raised by Deng Xiaoping
- Western countries ‘no longer look down on us’ and Beijing should try to expand its international influence, says Lu, seen as a Wolf Warrior’
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A senior Chinese diplomat has said that the country is now a major player on the world stage and can no longer be “hiding its capacities and biding its time”, a diplomatic approach proposed by former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.
Lu Shaye, the ambassador to France, said: “When we were relatively poor and backward, Western countries looked down upon us in dealing with us. Now, they basically look at us as equals, and in some cases even look up to us.
“A big country should act like a big country, it cannot hide its capacities and bide its time as it had in the past … If you have grown as big as an elephant, you can no longer hide behind trees.”
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He made the comments in an interview with China Youth Daily during the annual “two sessions”, when the national legislature and top political advisory body meet.
Deng coined the phrase about China” hiding its capacities and biding its time” when he put forward the idea that the country should keep a low profile and focus on its own development in 1990 following the end of the Cold War.
It has been a cornerstone of the country’s foreign policy since then, although it has been less pronounced since Xi Jinping came to power 10 years ago and was seen to promote a more assertive approach dubbed “Wolf Warrior diplomacy” after a series of nationalistic action films.
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