Growing Diplomacy, Retreating Diplomats – How the Chinese Foreign Ministry has been Marginalized in Foreign Policymaking

Abstract

This article examines the shrinking influence of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in China’s foreign policymaking, at a time when the country’s diplomatic needs are rapidly growing. By utilizing the theory of domestic sources of international relations, this article argues that the MFA has been under stress from all directions: sidestepped by Party leaders from the top, challenged by competing ministries horizontally, and mocked by the public from below. The article also assesses the consequences a marginalized MFA has brought to Chinese diplomacy.

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank Meiqin Rui for research assistance and Edward Friedman for critical inputs.

Notes

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¹⁶ The People’s Daily, ‘外交学院党委书记：周总理16字外交要求成校训’ [Party Secretary of Chinese Foreign Affairs University: Premier Zhou’s sixteen-character diplomatic requirement becomes school motto], http://edu.people.com.cn/n/2014/0729/c1006-25365254.html, 29 July 2014; accessed 24 May 2015.

¹⁷ Ibid.

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²⁵ The popular phrase ‘Shanghai Clique’ [上海帮] was used to describe Jiang Zemin’s effort to promote those who had worked with him in order to tame Hu Jintao after Jiang’s formal retirement. The influence of the Shanghai Clique only began to recede after Xi Jinping took power. For a book-length analysis, see John Wong and Yongnian Zheng, eds, China’s Post-Jiang Leadership Succession: Problems and Perspectives, (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2002).

²⁶ Shi Li, Hiroshi Sato, and Terry Sicular, eds, Rising Inequality in China: Challenges to a Harmonious Society, (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013).

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²⁹ Yang Jiechi, Speech at the MFA Internal Conference on Logistical Management, http://www.ggj.gov.cn/hqzzs/zgjghq/2012/201206/201206/t20120612_277865.htm, accessed 30 May 2015.

³⁰ For a review essay on various assessments of Xi’s power, see Alice Miller, ‘How strong is Xi Jinping?’, Chinese Leadership Monitor 43, (2014), pp. 1–12.

³¹ The Wenweipo (Hong Kong), ‘Proposal of setting up National Security Committee starts during the Jiang Zemin era’, 13 November 2012, http://i.ifeng.com/news/sharenews.f?aid=73962154, accessed 30 May 2015.

³² National Security Council, https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/nsc/ accessed 28 May 2015.

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³⁴ Jane Perlez, ‘New Chinese panel said to oversee domestic security and foreign policy’ in The New York Times, 13 November 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/world/asia/national-security-committee-china.html?_r=0, accessed 16 July 2015.

³⁵ Forbes, ‘Wu Yi ranked 2 among The Most Powerful Women In 2004, 2005 and 2007’, accessed at http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/11/GGD7.html and http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/11/biz-07women_Wu-Yi_2CR9.html on 10 June 2015.

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³⁷ 舒景林[Shu Jingling], ‘新时期中国军事外交的特点’ [‘Characteristics of Chinese military diplomacy in the new era’] in学术交流[Academic Exchange] S1, (2013), p. 42.

³⁸ Deng Xiaoping, 邓小平文选 [The Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping], vol. 3, (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1993), pp. 99–128.

³⁹ Xinhua News Agency, ‘胡锦涛阐述中国新安全观’ [‘Hu Jintao iterates China’s “new security” concept’], 25 September 2009, http://news.sina.com.cn/w/2009-09-25/080016356545s.shtml, accessed 29 May 2015.

⁴⁰ Mao Zedong, ‘Problems of war and strategy’ in Selected Works of Mao Tse Tung, Vol. (II), (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1966), p. 224.

⁴¹ A most recent example of the Party leadership’s effort to harness the military can be witnessed in Xi Jinping’s major structural changes to the PLA announced in December 2015. See Miles Yu, ‘Chinese president’s military overhaul tightens Communist Party’s Control’ in the Washington Post, http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/3/inside-china-xi-jinpings-military-overhaul-tighten/, 3 December 2015; accessed 19 September 2016.

⁴² Graham T. Allison, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (New York: Pearson, 1999), p. 26.

⁴³ Xinhua News Agency, ‘新中国的将军大使们：练习外语、学吃西餐、睡不惯席梦思’ [General-turned-ambassadors of New China: practice foreign languages, learn to eat Western meals, yet remains uncomfortable with sleeping on a mattress], 14 November 2014, http://dangshi.people.com.cn/n/2014/1013/c85037-25821070.html, accessed 22 January 2016.

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⁴⁶ The New York Times attributed the quote to General Xiong Guankai. Chas Freeman, the person to whom Xiong was speaking, denied Xiong had said this. However, Freedman admitted that toward the end of the meeting, in a heated exchange of arguments, someone from the Chinese military delegation reminded American members that China could hit back at Los Angeles as a deterrent measure. See Jeffrey Lewis, ‘Gertz and Xiong: a love torn asunder’, http://lewis.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/433/gertz-and-xiong-a-love-torn-asunder, 11 February 2005, accessed 29 May 2015.

⁴⁷ Personal interview, 4 August 2004.

⁴⁸ Francis E. Rourke, Bureaucracy and Foreign Policy (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972), pp. 49–50. Also see Rourke’s later work, Bureaucratic Power in National Policy Making, 4th ed. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1986).

⁴⁹ Xinhua News Agency, ‘习近平出席中央外事工作会议并发表重要讲话’ [Xi Jinping attends Central Conference of Foreign Affairs and delivers important speech], 29 November 2014, http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2014-11/29/c_1113457723.htm, accessed 30 May 2015.

⁵⁰ Xinhua News Agency, ‘中央外事工作会议在京举行，胡锦涛做重要讲话’ [Central Conference of Foreign Affairs opens in Beijing; Hu Jintao delivers important speech], 23 August 2006, http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2006-08/23/content_4999294.htm, accessed 30 May 2015.

⁵¹ For biographical information of Chinese ambassadors to North Korea, see http://kp.china-embassy.org/chn/dshd/lrds/lrdsjl/, accessed 19 July 2015.

⁵² Susan Shirk, Fragile Superpower: How China’s Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

⁵³ The Beijing Youth Daily, ‘外交部发言人趣事：有人送钙片暗示表态太软’ [‘Anecdotes of MFA spokespersons: Ministry receives calcium pills as symbol of weakness’], 16 December 2013, http://news.qq.com/a/20131216/000719.htm, accessed 25 July 2015.

⁵⁴ Mockeries of the MFA as ‘Ministry of Protests’ are numerous. See, for example, 恒毅 [Heng Yi] ‘把外交部改名为抗议部吧 ‘ [‘Let’s rename MFA Ministry of Protests’], http://club.china.com/data/thread/1011/2712/25/33/3_1.html, 30 April 2010; accessed 19 September 2016.

⁵⁵ The Telegraph, ‘China’s school bus donation to Macedonia derided’, 28 November 2011, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8920865/Chinas-school-bus-donation-to-Macedonia-derided.html, accessed 30 May 2015.

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⁵⁷ The State Department, ‘Non-immigrant visas issued by Issuing Office’, http://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/AnnualReports/FY2014AnnualReport/FY14AnnualReport-TablXIX.pdf accessed 19 July 2015.

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⁶² 薛力[Xue Li], ‘中国外交面临官僚主义威胁’ [‘Chinese diplomacy faces threat of bureaucraticism’] The China Daily, 22 April 2015, http://translate.chinadaily.com.cn/article-305056-1.html; the article became retrievable again on this web address as of 10 September 2016.

⁶³ Personal interview, 20 March 2012.