Yunling, Zhang

Abstract
China and its neighbours are closely bound by geography. The rise of China presents new challenges and opportunities for the development of its neighbourhood relations and regional strategies. Currently, China’s policy priority in its neighbourhood is active promotion of the construction of a community based on shared interests and a common destiny. The real challenge is that China’s rise from a weak to a powerful state has triggered multiple and complex reactions and has required significant and profound adjustment of regional relationships. As a consequence there have been growing tensions in China’s neighbourhood areas. Traditional Chinese culture sets the highest value on ‘peace and harmony’, commends the ‘defusing’ of contradictions and pursues the result of ‘reconciliation’. Now that China is getting strong and is able to make choices as it wishes, the time has come for it to display its ‘culture of harmony’.
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