China's Foreign Policy — Glossary

Aksai Chin is a high-altitude desert plateau in the western sector of the India–China boundary, administered by China but claimed by India as part of Ladakh.

An analytical essay is an examination answer that decomposes a proposition into its components, weighs evidence and counter-arguments, and defends a reasoned thesis rather than merely narrating facts.

The Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law is a 2021 Chinese statute authorizing countermeasures against individuals and entities that participate in foreign sanctions deemed to interfere in China's internal affairs.

The Anti-Secession Law is a 2005 statute of the People's Republic of China authorizing the use of "non-peaceful means" to prevent Taiwan's formal separation from China.

Belarus became the tenth full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation at the Astana summit in July 2024, the first European state admitted to the bloc.

The Brahmaputra is a major transboundary river that rises in Tibet as the Yarlung Tsangpo, flows through Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India, and joins the Ganga in Bangladesh.

BRICS and the SCO are two non-Western multilateral groupings—one an economic-coordination bloc, the other a Eurasian security organisation—both central to China's foreign policy.

Chancay Port is a Chinese-built and majority-owned deep-water megaport on Peru's central Pacific coast, inaugurated in November 2024 as a flagship Belt and Road node linking South America directly to Asia.

The China-UN Peace and Development Fund is a US$200 million Chinese trust fund, pledged in 2015 and operational from 2016, that finances UN peace, security, and development projects aligned with Beijing's priorities.

The China–CELAC Forum is the institutional platform, launched in 2015, through which China engages collectively with the 33 states of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

The CHIPS and Science Act is a 2022 United States law providing roughly $52.7 billion in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research to reduce reliance on Asian supply chains.

A consensus decision rule adopts a measure only when no participating member formally objects, without resort to a counted vote or numerical majority threshold.

The Contingent Reserve Arrangement is a US$100 billion BRICS currency-swap framework, signed in 2014, that provides member central banks short-term liquidity support against balance-of-payments pressures.

The Council of Heads of State is the supreme decision-making organ of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, comprising member-state presidents and setting the bloc's strategic priorities.

Current-affairs analysis is the systematic study of contemporary events, policies, and developments to interpret their causes, significance, and likely consequences for examination and policymaking.

De-dollarisation is the deliberate reduction of reliance on the US dollar for international trade settlement, reserve holdings, and cross-border finance by states and institutions.

A definitional element is the first component of a structured answer that fixes the precise meaning, scope, and authority of a key term before analysis begins.

Democratization of international relations is the principle that global affairs should be governed by all states equally rather than dominated by a few great powers or hegemonic blocs.

The diplomatic-management angle is the analytical lens that treats foreign policy as an administrative and institutional process, examining how a state organizes, staffs, and coordinates its diplomatic machinery.

The Djibouti base is China's People's Liberation Army Support Base, opened in 2017, the country's first and only overseas permanent military facility.

February 2022 denotes the month of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February and the Beijing Winter Olympics, marking a watershed in post-Cold War international order.

Hambantota Port is a deep-sea port in southern Sri Lanka that Colombo leased to a Chinese state firm for 99 years in 2017 after failing to service its construction debt.

Japan is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy in East Asia, the world's third- or fourth-largest economy, governed under its 1947 Constitution.

The Johannesburg summit of August 2023 was the 15th BRICS summit, hosted by South Africa, which approved the bloc's first expansion since 2010 by inviting six new members.

The Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) is the permanent counter-terrorism organ of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, headquartered in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a free-trade agreement among fifteen Asia-Pacific states that entered into force on 1 January 2022, forming the world's largest trading bloc.

UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 (1971) recognised the People's Republic of China as the sole legal representative of China at the United Nations and expelled the Republic of China (Taiwan).

The Shanghai Communiqué is the 1972 joint statement issued by the United States and the People's Republic of China that opened normalization of bilateral relations and articulated the "one China" framework.

The Shanghai Five was a 1996–2001 grouping of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan formed to settle border disputes and build regional security cooperation.

The Sino-Indian War was a month-long border conflict fought in October–November 1962 between India and the People's Republic of China over the disputed Himalayan frontier.

The Six Assurances are six policy commitments the United States conveyed to Taiwan in July 1982 to reassure Taipei amid the negotiation of the U.S.–PRC August 17 Communiqué on arms sales.

South Africa's 2010 accession to the BRIC grouping transformed it into BRICS, adding the bloc's first African member at China's invitation.

Taiwan is an island administered by the Republic of China since 1945, claimed by the People's Republic of China as an inalienable part of its territory under the One-China principle.

Trade is the voluntary exchange of goods, services, and capital across national or domestic boundaries, governed since 1995 by the World Trade Organization's multilateral rules.

Uniting for Consensus is a bloc of states, led by Italy and Pakistan, that opposes the addition of new permanent members to the UN Security Council.