Hcss report

less 
recent
than commonly thought. In the 1990s, Sino-African trade increased by 700%; 
in 2000, China cancelled $1.2 billion of African debt and $750 million in 2003.
69
Diplomacy
Rhetorical Evidence
Cheng (2013) emphasizes aspects of a 
positive rhetoric
which would have been 
rising steadily over time
in Chinese diplomacy. He reminds us that in 2002 former 
President Jiang Zemin elaborated on China’s “periphery diplomacy” i.e., “do good to 
neighboring countries and treat them as partners”. This suggests an objective to 
strengthen 
political cooperation
at the regional level. In the following years, there is 
growing evidence of a will to develop economic cooperation
. In 2003, Premier 
Wen Jiabao addressed the ASEAN Commerce and Investment Summit by enunciating 
the principle of “maintaining good relations with China’s neighboring countries, 
offering them security and prosperity”. At the 17
th
Party Congress in 2007, “Hu Jintao 
had declared that China would “implement a free trade area strategy, strengthen 
bilateral and multilateral economic and trade cooperation”.
There are however limits to economic cooperation, especially when China’s 
territorial 
sovereignty
is at stake: one cooperation agreement with Japan had failed due to the 
escalation of confrontation over the claim of Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands.
70
Several authors 
such as Johnston or MacLeod refer to such assertiveness, particularly regarding 
maritime and territorial claims, as ‘revisionist’.
71
These claims have 
intensified in 
recent years.
For instance, Yang Jiechi (China’s foreign minister) had stressed in 
March 2013 that the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands are China’s inherent territory.
72
There are elements suggesting that lately China’s concerns over sovereignty no longer 
even solely include their own borders. This is quite clear from reading through recent 
declarations of Chinese officials mentioning the Arctic’s sovereignty (in 2009 and 
2010).
73
China
 demands change
, not least to reform the UN Convention on the Law of the 
Sea regarding free navigation through the Arctic sea-lanes.
74
In the 1990s, this was 
already perceptible, even in fundamental debates or themes. For instance, Vice 

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36
STRATEGIC MONITOR 2014
Premier Qian Qichen had expressed in 1996 the intent to change the security concept 
to establish the basis of a new international order.
75
China