Auteur de la note

About the authors, Jakub Bryksy and Solène Simard

Jakub Bryksy is an MPhil Modern Chinese Studies student at the University of Oxford. His research interest covers the contemporary history of China and its interaction with Central and Eastern European countries. He previously completed BSc Economics, Politics, and International Studies degree at the University of Warwick and worked at various organizations in Poland.

Solène Simard is an MPhil candidate in Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford, supported by the Fonds de recherche du Québec and Mackenzie King Scholarships. Her research focuses on cross-Strait relations, the semiconductor industry, and the dynamics of techno-nationalism. She has worked as a research assistant on projects examining Indo-Pacific strategies, as well as Canada–China and Canada–Taiwan relations and previously held non-partisan roles at the House of Commons of Canada. She is also a Young Professional Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Solène holds an Honours BSocSc in Political Science with a minor in Asian Studies from the University of Ottawa and studied Mandarin Chinese at Peking University.

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From Low to High Profile: How Xi Jinping Fulfilled Deng Xiaoping’s Foreign Policy Legacy • Jakub Bryksy and Solène Simard

From Low to High Profile: How Xi Jinping Fulfilled Deng Xiaoping’s Foreign Policy Legacy

Jakub Bryksy and Solène Simard were selected among the ten shortlisted essays to be published on Asia Centre’s website, following their submission to the Asia Centre Essay Challenge first edition “China Geopolitics”.

Find the full essay via the PDF button above.

First introduced in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square incident of 1989, Deng Xiaoping’s low-profile strategy (韬光养晦) has long guided the norms of Chinese foreign policy (Chen & Wang, 2011, pp. 197-199). By “hiding its capabilities, building its national strength, and biding its time” (Zhao, 2012, p. 191), China was able to navigate an increasingly critical international environment without hindering the course of its domestic development, resulting in decade-long leading growth rates (Chen & Wang, 2011, p. 197). Despite this success, most scholars and experts now believe that Deng’s low-profile dictum no longer forms the basis of Chinese foreign policy thinking and that China is, instead, going down the path of a much more assertive strategy (Chang-Liao, 2016, p. 817; Chen & Wang, 2011, p. 195; Mazarr et al., 2018, p. 17). For instance, there has been an increase in military exercises around Taiwan and patrolling activities in the South China Sea aimed at enforcing the nine-dash line (Sevastopulo, 2024). China also does not shy away from retaliating against foreign governments’ actions, as evidenced by the detention of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig as a retribution for Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, in 2018 (The Guardian, 2021). Some, such as Chang-Liao (2016, 2022) and Yuan (2023), attribute, at least in part, this “wolf warrior” foreign policy strategy to Xi Jinping’s rise to power in 2013.

Summary of the essay:

The CCP’s Neoclassical Realist Worldview
Turning Point
Nationalist Narratives
The Weight of the International Response
Conclusion

From Low to High Profile: How Xi Jinping Fulfilled Deng Xiaoping’s Foreign Policy Legacy, by Jakub Bryksy and Solène Simard:

Illustration: Deng Xiaoping and Jimmy Carter during Sino-American signing ceremony. January 31, 1979. Licence: Open Access | Link: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/183286