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This article contextualizes and clarifies the political and security components of Chinas contemporary strategic engagement with developing countries. Over the last decade, China has adopted a more self-confident and assertive foreign policy, under which political and military elements have become more prominent. This approach places renewed emphasis on Chinas position in and leadership of the developing world. Chinas leaders look to coordinate policy with newly emerging powers to support and foster what they identify as the trend towards a more multipolar world order, that is, soft balancing against American hegemonism. Moreover, Beijing seeks to curry favor with and raise the voices of developing countries in international institutions to build a normative constituency against American unilateralism. As part of this effort to democratize international relations, Beijing has also underwritten a constellation of China-dominated regional institutions that harmonize its policies and provide venues to build strategic relationships with developing countries.
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"As the realignment of international powers accelerates and the strength of emerging markets and developing countries keeps growing, the configuration of strategic power is becoming more balanced," begins China's 2019 Defense White Paper.1 Indeed, not since the Mao era have developing countries played a larger role in China's geostrategy. In an effort to constrain the United States' unilateral use of force, China's leaders have adopted policies that catalyze what they see as an historic trend towards "multipolarity" and the "democratization" of international relations. Developing states, in turn, are becoming ever more important strategic partners for China, which despite its rapid rise continues to portray itself as their leader.
Over the last two decades, China's leaders have come to believe they can reshape the world in ways more befitting their interests. In 2007, President Hu Jintao said that China would seek to create a "harmonious world" and asserted that the world cannot "enjoy prosperity and stability without China."2 Since the 2009 global financial crisis, Beijing has adopted a more self-confident and proactive foreign policy, with political and military elements gaining prominence. Around the same time, Beijing also initiated a more assertive approach to maritime disputes in the South China Sea and East China Sea.3 In 2012, President Xi Jinping proposed a "new type of great major power relations" with the...