China has shown growing maturity in its diplomacy with neighboring countries by assuming a more active role in regional and international affairs in 2014, scholars said at a symposium themed “New Thoughts and Building a Strategic Base for China’s Diplomacy with Neighboring Countries” held recently in Beijing.

Zhang Yunling, director of the Academic Division of International Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said that China has attached increasing importance to its relationships with neighboring countries and made continuous efforts to adjust itself to the surroundings.

As China’s regional strategies become more flexible and transparent, new ideas and actions are required to make China a global power based on the surroundings, added Zhang.

In recent years, China has proposed a few new concepts in its diplomacy with neighboring countries.

Owing to the Chinese government’s confidence-building endeavors, concepts for strategic cooperation, such as “Silk Road Economic Belt,” “Maritime Silk Road,” and “Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,” have garnered strong support from most neighbors, said Gao Zugui, deputy director of the Institute for International Strategic Studies at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China.

“The new concepts we have put forward are not necessarily concrete. Rather, they aim at conveying an idea of mutual benefit and reciprocity, and a spirit of cooperation and win-win, so more and more neighboring countries willingly take part,” he explained.

Nevertheless, the regional situation is increasingly complicated due to the changing power structure and rivalry among countries, which has led to growing uncertainties.

The overriding concern for China is how to resolve various contradictions in its relations with neighboring countries and translate economic dividends it brings to neighbors to dividends of strategic reciprocity.

In future cooperation with its neighbors, China needs to pay more attention to their interest demands and cope with some conflict and disputes in a more “elegant” manner, scholars said.

Since most of its neighbors are developing countries, China should consider how to address long-running deficits by altering its trade structure with these countries. Scholars pinpointed this move as being of vital significance to China’s improvement and strengthening of its relationships with neighbors.

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today (CASS Issue), No. 269, October 24, 2014.

Translated by Chen Mirong

　　Revised by Tom Fearon