Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy (习近平外交思想, Xí Jìnpíng wàijiāo sīxiǎng) is the official ideological framework that governs the foreign policy of the People's Republic of China under General Secretary Xi Jinping. It was formally codified at the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs convened in Beijing on 22–23 June 2018, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee designated it as the "fundamental guideline" (根本遵循) for Chinese diplomacy. The doctrine is a subordinate component of the broader "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era," which was written into the CCP Constitution at the 19th Party Congress in October 2017 and into the PRC State Constitution by the 13th National People's Congress in March 2018. Its institutional home is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Central Foreign Affairs Commission (中央外事工作委员会), the Party organ that supplanted the older Leading Small Group on Foreign Affairs in March 2018 and is chaired by Xi himself.
The doctrine is organized around what Chinese official sources term the "Ten Musts" (十个坚持), a catechism enumerated by then-State Councillor Yang Jiechi and elaborated by Foreign Minister Wang Yi. These principles include upholding the Party's centralized leadership over external work, pursuing major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, building a "community with a shared future for mankind" (人类命运共同体), advancing the Belt and Road Initiative as the principal platform for international cooperation, and defending China's sovereignty, security, and development interests. Procedurally, the framework flows from Politburo Standing Committee deliberations down through the Central Foreign Affairs Commission to executing agencies — the MFA, the International Liaison Department of the CCP Central Committee (中联部), the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Council Information Office — which then translate Party directives into bilateral démarches, multilateral positions, and public messaging.
Beyond the Ten Musts, the doctrine subsumes several signature concepts Xi has personally promoted since 2013. The "community with a shared future for mankind" was first articulated in his March 2013 address at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and has since been inscribed in the preamble of the PRC Constitution and in numerous UN General Assembly and Human Rights Council resolutions. The Belt and Road Initiative, announced in Astana and Jakarta in September and October 2013, operationalizes the doctrine's economic dimension. Three subsequent "Global Initiatives" — the Global Development Initiative (2021), the Global Security Initiative (2022), and the Global Civilization Initiative (2023) — extend the framework into development finance, security architecture, and normative contestation with what Beijing calls "universal values" associated with the liberal international order.
Contemporary application is visible across multiple theaters. At the MFA's Lanting Forum and in press briefings led by spokespersons Mao Ning, Lin Jian, and Wang Wenbin, the doctrine is invoked to justify positions on Taiwan, the South China Sea, and sanctions regimes. The March 2023 Beijing-brokered restoration of Saudi-Iranian diplomatic relations was officially presented as a practical demonstration of the Global Security Initiative. At the BRICS summit in Johannesburg in August 2023 and the Third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in October 2023, Xi framed expansion of these groupings as embodiments of the doctrine. Wang Yi, reinstalled as Foreign Minister in July 2023 after the abrupt removal of Qin Gang, has been the principal expositor, publishing systematic essays in Qiushi (求是), the CCP's theoretical journal.
Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy is conceptually distinct from, though it builds upon, earlier doctrinal formulations. Deng Xiaoping's 24-character guidance of 1990 — including the injunction to "hide capabilities and bide time" (韬光养晦) — counseled restraint; Xi's doctrine explicitly transcends this posture by embracing "striving for achievement" (奋发有为), a phrase introduced at the October 2013 Peripheral Diplomacy Work Conference. It is also distinguishable from Hu Jintao's "harmonious world" (和谐世界) concept of 2005, which lacked the assertive operational programs and Party-centric command structure now in place. Unlike the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (和平共处五项原则) jointly enunciated with India and Burma in 1954, which remain rhetorically endorsed, Xi's framework is prescriptive about China's leadership role rather than merely defensive of sovereign equality.
The doctrine has generated controversy on several fronts. Critics in Washington, Brussels, Tokyo, and Canberra characterize the "community with a shared future" as a vehicle for sinocentric revisionism, while "wolf warrior" diplomacy (战狼外交) — associated with figures such as former spokesperson Zhao Lijian, reassigned in January 2023 — has been variously described as a deviation from, or a faithful expression of, the doctrine's assertive logic. The July 2023 removal of Foreign Minister Qin Gang after only seven months in office, and the subsequent purges in the Rocket Force, raised questions about implementation coherence. Within Chinese academia, scholars at institutions including the China Foreign Affairs University and Tsinghua University's Center for International Security and Strategy have produced extensive exegetical literature, while the MFA established a dedicated Research Center on Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy in July 2020.
For the working practitioner, fluency in this doctrine is no longer optional. Demarches issued by PRC embassies, voting explanations at the UN Security Council, communiqués from FOCAC and the China-CELAC Forum, and bilateral joint statements all draw vocabulary directly from its lexicon. Reading these documents without recognizing references to the "Ten Musts," the three Global Initiatives, or the "two safeguards" (两个维护) risks missing the operational signals embedded in formulaic language. For desk officers in foreign ministries, analysts at think tanks, and journalists covering Beijing, the doctrine functions both as an interpretive key to PRC behavior and as the authoritative text against which Chinese officials themselves are measured for political loyalty.
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At the Central Conference on Work Relating to Foreign Affairs in Beijing on 22–23 June 2018, Xi Jinping formally established Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy as the guiding ideology for all PRC external work.