This opinion piece focuses on different strategies in Chinese foreign policy parlance. I am going to take these and apply them to the ongoing US-China trade dispute. The main focus of the paper is to explain how these strategies describe the different approaches to deal with the trade dispute. After fleshing out these approaches, this piece will try to display the similarities and differences in them when dealing with the trade dispute.

We can extract five different broad strategies which are based on patience, adaptability, pragmatism, leapfrogging and dexterous maneuvering. If we dive deep into the different Chinese strategies, it can be stated that they are nothing but logical continuity and manifestations of “All under Heaven” concept as depicted by the Tian-Xia school. The political principle of world-ness which includes respect for people’s hearts and global institutions can only be achieved by following a path which not only serves the core interests of native population in terms of security and development but represent China as a torchbearer of global liberal values.

In this context, building a grand strategy based on broad principles and big ends is more important than making calculations based on teleological ending or a piecemeal approach. Patience stands out as an important strategy of Chinese foreign policy. As depicted in Zhongyi Pan’s reading, the concept of Guanxi and Weiqi reflect its importance in Chinese thinking. Chinese foreign policy is relational and based on long term strategy which involves investing in relations with the countries. So, Guanxi, which is a relational theory of gradually building relations and interconnections forms an important part and parcel of this strategy. We can see there is involvement of “patience” as maintaining a long-term proper relation may have phases of conceding, being angry and ignoring the other country. But overall keeping the relation going is more important.

Further, the concept of Weiqi involves a kind of gradual normative entangling and encirclement of the opponent. This also needs time and patience. Julian’s reading on Propensity of things focuses on natural battle field but involving Guanxi here can be more important as we have to wait for right moment to do battle. Most important thing is that there is no need to do the battle finally if “strategic patience” is observed as it may lead to bringing opponent to a terrain which favors one’s military might and conditions. Moving forward, adaptability as a strategy is well depicted in the readings of Julian and Jisi Wang. According to Julian Chinese donot bother to see the differentiation between Yin and Yang i,e theory with respect to practice and see them as an integrated reality. Both are like consanguineous twins and their relationship constantly unfolds.

As propensity to change is high and reality is not a constant, there is a need to act and orient in such a way that this gradual unfolding changing reality can be handled properly. This logic is also present in the views of Jisi which focuses on transformation of foreign policy based on economic and nontraditional concerns. Gradual shift from country oriented to multilateral issues like environment protection, food security and shared values is an indication of Chinese adaptation and trying to emerge as a cultural soft power rather than a military hegemon. Pragmatism stands out as the next important strategy. In this context, Bijian and Zhonqi Pan seem to promote the view that pragmatism can coexist with peaceful rise.

As Pan states that foreign policy in China has been influenced by taboos. These taboos may act as an antecedent for pragmatism as very often prohibitions make countries pragmatic in their approach. If China considers offending a bigger power as a taboo then peaceful rise is a pragmatic way forward. As per Deng Xiaoping’s “ peaceful rise pragmatic view”, there is not need to fight with a bigger power(like USA) till China is on a rise and not powerful enough. Promoting soft power, embracing economic globalization and preventing actions that may lead to coalition are a part of this strategy. Realist scholar like Feng Zhang supplement this by taking a stance which backs regional stability with limited disruption (peaceful rise) as a pragmatic view having “strong policy influence”.

The next strategy of leapfrogging can be seen embedded in the views of Bijian and Jisi. There is a strategic jump in Chinese foreign policy as they are no more interested in keeping a low profile in matters of global importance. This big shift in policy from Deng Xiaoping era to present is justified as China is more powerful now and it can concentrate on domestic priorities such as development and issues of global prominence like security efficiently .The grand strategy of transcendence as stated by Bijian is also like a leap frogging strategy in which China moves away from the traditional mentality of striving for power through plundering of resources or imperialistic means(pursued by countries like Germany and Japan) and tries to promote global peace and cooperation without caring about ideological differences.

The last strategy is based on dexterous maneuvering. Weiqi concept focuses on this as diplomacy is also about maneuvering a situation to one’s own benefit. There is an implicit sense of advantage when we talk about soft gradual encirclement. Apart from the aggressive mindset conveyed by Feng Zhang realist school on South China Sea and sense of maneuvering advantage displayed by scholars like Zhongqi Pan on Weiqi along with Julian’s view on Propensity of things, the majority focus of all the Chinese scholars has been on an accommodating view and peaceful rise of China. Taking these strategies forward and applying them to a current problem like the US- China trade war gives countries like China more strategic and intellectual capital to tackle the issue. The strategy of patience is very important for China in this context as USA and Japan are two major trade partners. China must use Weiqi strategy to gradually encircle USA in technology and trade domains. China has been trying to win and get USA allies all over the world from Europe to Asia through huge capital-intensive projects like Belt and Road initiative.

This can be used as long term strategy to build a coalition against the USA and gradually use it in case of trade related issues. There has been a conscious attempt by Chinese government to display its soft power through promotion of issues like free trade and multilateralism at forums like WTO. Chinese stand may appear like a renaissance for many but it has helped it to win friends globally. China has emerged as a leader among developing countries backing free movement of technology, sovereign decision making and openness for the majority. With USA opposing the developing country status of China and strongly advocating more responsibilities for China at platforms like UNFCC and WTO, Chinese have to be prudent enough to realize that they need to win more allies to tackle the USA pressure. If USA is cautioned by its allies( who are also in good relation with China) that trade war is not a zero-sum game but a phenomenon which can have global spill over effects , a solution may emerge. This strategy of patience (involving Weiqi) which China had adopted since trade war gave its positive result with latest talks between the two countries over the sanctions.

Similarly, Guanxi as a concept focuses on keeping the relations going. Chinese administration must realize that Trump is ephemeral and so are the trade disputes. There must be an attempt by China to interact with Congress, chamber of commerce and civil society so that long term contacts are maintained. This will help in easing the situation further in future. This is also in consonance with the peaceful rise of China not pushing things too fast as Guanxi strategy helps both in context of balancing overall national interest globally with domestic policies. Being coercive and becoming hardliner as depicted by Feng Zhang will have a modest and unsustainable policy influence. Further banking on the strategy of Pragmatism, striking a balanced deal with USA and maintaining a consistency in relations would be a good move for future. China and USA have to realized that their common interests are more than the differences. With the culmination of first phase of trade war leading to Trump and Vice Premier discussion along and China must a trade deal, it is very clear that there is a need to compensate for short term losses by looking for long term gain from Chinese prospectives.

The strategy of leapfrogging may be very handy in these circumstances. Building an innovation led economy needs strong intellectual property rights regime and dynamic shift in Chinese economic policy like opening up financial sector which is a kind of transcendence or strategic jump in current scenario. Further a more dynamic move in the deal has been in form of acceptance to not devalue the currency artificially is one of the biggest changes in Chinese policy since Deng Xiaoping’s industrialization move in 1970’s. This also reflects the strategy of adaptability which Chinese have started slowly now. Effect of these economic policies reflect on the foreign policy also as both are interconnected. There is an urgent need for more use of this strategy as the trade war shows close resemblance to the Clausewitzian battle field where its very difficult to predict the end result and a fog of war like situation persists. In this context propensity to change must be very high as stated by scholars like Julian .China must sense that this trade deal provides very good opportunities for developing capabilities in terms of foreign and private investments .

So, as per adaptability and dexterous maneuvering strategy China must try to build its domestic capacities as it decides to open up sectors for foreign investment. Beefing up domestic supply chain system and continuing dialogue with the USA will be a part of pragmatic, patient foreign policy as a strong economy increases the bargaining power in global context. But it must done slowly and not in extreme hurry. All these strategies work best when they are acting in scenario in which all of the can work simultaneously. Although it is rare to see these five strategies operating at tandem but the strategies complement each other as they form part of global liberal values. It must be understood that these strategies as all five are interconnected and adopting a one leads to a very natural adoption of other. So, five different broad strategies which are based on patience, adaptability, pragmatism, leapfrogging and dexterous maneuvering form the basis of Chinese foreign policy. They have been used by China efficiently in tackling the trade war situation with USA as they have arrived at a brief deal benefiting both the countries. But issue is regarding universality of these strategies and challenge will be for Chinese to see that how well these five strategies can be used in solving the South China Sea dispute, differences with Japan and North Korea problem.

(Writer is incoming candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science.He is an alumnus of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore and Indian Institute of Management Ranchi)