China's International Policy in the New Era

- In the increasingly interconnected world of today, the boundaries between domestic and foreign policies are more fluid and penetrable as ever. The well-known and rather worn metaphor of the butterfly effect found an appropriate correspondent in the attention the world paid to the domestic event of the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China that convened in the autumn of 2017, as its decisions were expected to have an impact on the country’s foreign policy as well. A New Era was defined within the The Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics that was included in the Party’s constitution, together with the Belt and Road Initiative. Decisions adopted in the following months outlined what allows for identifying at least four characteristics – the Four C’s – of China’s thinking, with a particular focus on international relations: continuity; creativity; consistency; and comprehensiveness. How they underpin China’s foreign policy seems to be crucially important in its understanding of the world order and, ever so more telling, for what it may consider of doing about it.