Mathieu Duchâtel, Oliver Bräuner and Zhou Hang

Abstract
Chinese foreign policy is slowly shifting away from a strict interpretation of noninterference, towards a pragmatic and incremental adaptation to new challenges to China’s globalizing economic and security interests. Although there has always been a degree of flexibility in Chinese foreign policy regarding non-interference, even during the Maoist period, the principle has by and large remained a key guideline for diplomatic work and a major rhetorical tool.
While non-interference continues to receive strong rhetorical support from China and is believed to be of great significance with respect to the protection of China’s ‘core interests’, particularly on issues related to state sovereignty, territorial integrity and the socialist political system, a policy debate has emerged regarding the principle’s sustainability in recent years. Indeed, non-interference was crafted in a different international environment in which China had few economic and security interests to defend beyond its borders. As a result of the globalization of the Chinese economic and human presence, the extent to which non-interference is serving the national interest of China is increasingly being questioned.
The rapid expansion of China’s overseas interests has led to an important policy debate in the Chinese strategic community. Many Chinese scholars expect that the globalization of China’s interests will result in transformations in China’s national defence policy and highlight in particular the importance of naval power. At the same time, normative transformations in the international system in the post-cold war era that have contributed to the erosion of sovereignty, such as the greater emphasis on human security, have also affected Chinese strategic debates regarding non-interference.
However, the mainstream Chinese academic community still maintains that the benefits of further adherence to non-interference outweigh the potential costs of a major policy change. China has engaged in a policy of pragmatic adaptation and has shown growing flexibility in its application of non-interference. The emergence of a number of new concepts, including ‘creative involvement’ and ‘constructive involvement’, facilitates this gradual change and equips China with more leeway to pursue an increasingly engaged foreign policy posture. Nevertheless, while Chinese overseas energy interests continue to grow rapidly, Chinese companies often operate in politically unstable countries and face increasing political and security risks, including armed conflict, political instability, terrorism, corruption, organized crime and piracy.
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