China ‘needs to do more’ to adjust foreign policy and win friends as trade war with US rolls on
- Beijing needs to rethink priorities after years of taking assertive stance that has made other nations wary, according to government adviser and academic
- It has been seeking to mend ties with nations including Japan and India as confrontation with Washington ‘more likely to be accelerated than mitigated’
Beijing is adjusting its assertive foreign policy and scaling back moves to expand its presence abroad, but it needs to do more to win friends as tensions escalate with Washington, according to a government adviser and researcher.
They said there was an urgent need for China to rethink its foreign policy priorities after years of taking an assertive stance that had made other nations – especially its neighbours – increasingly worried, and created a situation that was adding to pressure amid its protracted trade war with the US.
Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University of China and a government adviser, said Beijing had been seeking to mend ties with nations including Japan and India, and across Southeast Asia and Europe – despite bitter territorial and historical disputes with some – because all-out confrontation with Washington was “more likely to be accelerated than mitigated”.
But, he said, “China should make up its mind and retract its strategy for the next five or six years”.
Earlier in the year, it appeared Beijing and Washington were getting closer to a trade deal, but talks collapsed in May, with the US accusing China of backtracking on its promises and imposing more tariffs, while a ceasefire agreed by the two sides in June was short-lived.
On Friday, US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that talks with China would continue but “we’re not ready to make a deal”.