{UAH} China's Priority in Geopolitical diplomacy

When Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently summed up Beijing's new diplomatic ideals as sharing the "Chinese Dream" with the rest of the world as China seeks a more active role on the global stage, he spoke against a backdrop of what is possibly the rudest and most undiplomatic interventions in an international crisis by Washington and Moscow in recent time.

Even as Mr Wang elucidated the new Chinese priorities on the global stage in early March with an emphasis on the pursuit of peaceful development and a more active international role, the US and Russia were exchanging threats, with Washington imposing sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

Diplomacy is often defined as the employment of tact for the purposes of securing strategic advantage and agreeing on solutions to common challenges.

Diplomacy is driven by, among other key skills, the language of negotiation and arbitration, the phrasing or formulation of problems and solutions in mutually respectful and non-confrontational terms.

By this definition, the world has seen very little diplomacy in the US-Russia confrontation over Ukraine.

It is impossible to conceive of a Chinese top diplomat being caught off-guard in the manner that Mrs Victoria J. Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs in the US State Department, was caught on February 6.

On that day, in a telephone conversation that was intercepted and widely distributed on YouTube, Mrs Nuland made an obscene four-letter word reference to the EU and its capabilities (or lack of them) to intervene strategically in the Ukraine crisis.

She was speaking to the US Ambassador to the Ukraine, discussing individual opposition leaders and identifying who should take over the government in case of regime change. Her choice is now Ukraine Prime Minister.

CANTANKEROUS ANTICS

In December 2013, Mrs Nuland caused another diplomatic incident when she joined anti-government protesters in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, as they called for the fall of the then legally elected President.

And then she started distributing cookies to the protesters.

Here on the African continent, diplomats and other State officials quietly shuddered, and no doubt asked themselves what would happen if they one day woke up to find Mrs Nuland appointed the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs!

What a total contrast to China's new diplomacy on the global stage when viewed alongside the cantankerous antics of the Nulands of this world!

Speaking on the sidelines of an annual Chinese parliamentary session, Mr Wang emphasised that not only will China adhere to the principle of peaceful development, but also expect other countries to do so.

China is looking to break the historical pattern of conflict and confrontation between major countries, and to find a new path that seeks cooperation and delivers benefits to all parties, he said.

Emphasising China's sense of responsibility, the Foreign Minister pointed out that, in 2013, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang visited 22 countries, received 65 foreign heads of state and government in China and met more than 300 foreign dignitaries, while the country reached about 800 agreements with other nations.

Given this kind of outreach, it will not be long before other nations mightily clamour for the Chinese brand of diplomacy and mature development partnership. 

Mr Kanini is a PR and communications practitioner in Nairobi. (fadhili@outlookpr.co.ke)

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