China has become adept in keeping its relations with other nations in a normal, substantial and flexible way, and earned wide respects and acclamations worldwide with its carefully-tailored, but sober-minded diplomacy.  

As the Chinese indigenous Lenovo merged IMB's personal computer business, China was no longer irrelevant to world economy and politics.

The US news magazine Time elected 56 most significant world events in the 20th century. The list begins with the Boxer Movement in 1900, which led to huge humiliated war damages from China to Western powers, and ends with the event in mid 1997 that China resumed the exercise of its sovereignty over Hong Kong, which Britain had colonized for 99 years.

In the 21st century, whose first two decades are named a strategic opportunity for accelerated development by the Chinese leadership, China exerted itself to be a global equal player. And the economic miracle in the most populous country makes it possible.

While keeping stable ties with Washington, which was enriched by mutual confidence building between the two militaries last year, Beijing develops a comprehensive strategic partnership with key European countries.

During his December visit to Beijing, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said there are no major impediments keeping Germany and China from cultivating satisfactory ties.

President Hu Jintao and French President Jacques Chirac exchanged visits in one single year.

As it softened its stance on arms embargo on China, the European Union invited China into its 3.4 billion euros worth Galileo Project, a space-based dual platform vying with the US military-deployed global positioning system (GPS). Aside from research assistance, China invested more than 200 million euros, or nearly six percent of its total budget, into the project.

On a number of issues that might undermine its core interest, China does not hesitate to say "no" politely but firmly. In an informal dialogue in October, Finance Minister Jin Renqing told his counterparts of G7 that China would go on keeping renminbi stable despite Western pressure on China for currency appreciation.

"Before making any decisions," Jin said, "We must take into account our macro-economic performance, international trade balance, banking system, as well as world financial conditions."

In response to Beijing's intransigence, nonetheless, the United States decided not to resort to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for legal arbitrage, as advocated by some US congressmen. In a November statement, the US Trade Representative Office said such an offensive charge would by no means be helpful.

Beijing also says "no" to Tokyo on Japanese prime minister's homage paying to the Yasukuni Shrine, where the ashes of top Japanese war criminals in World War II were kept.

Adhering to the principle does not necessarily mean rigid or irrational in diplomatic maneuvers. President Hu met with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi last November in Santiago, Chile, in multilateral settings. "To develop a long-term stable friendship between China and Japan is more significant today than ever," Hu said.

In addition to reinforce its cordial and friendly ties with its neighbors, China reached out for cooperative relations more actively to states beyond those that share boundaries with it.

"This has resulted in the announcement of agreements with states in South America, Africa and the Middle East that suggest an expansion of the realms in which China is seeking to establish a greater presence," Dr. Alan Wachman, associate professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University who observes China closely, said in an e-mail interview with Xinhua.

With more economic resources and increased confidence, China is ready and willing to involve itself in more multilateral and humanitarian efforts.

China dispatched police to the United Nations peacekeeping operations in places where humanitarian disasters occurred. The Chinese government also donated relief supplies worth of 520 million yuan (US$62.65 million) to those tsunami-hit countries in last days of 2004.

"It reflects a very real change in China's wealth and capacity to involve itself more broadly than it has in issues that only indirectly benefit China," Dr. Wachman said.

"By adopting strategies with a global perspective," said Dr. Wang Yizhou, deputy director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "China benefits from a well-devised diplomacy."

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2005)