"China's peaceful rise", officially referred to as "China's peaceful development" since 2004, is a policy and political slogan in the People's Republic of China (PRC) implemented under former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Hu Jintao. It sought to assure the international community that China's growing political, economic, and military power would not pose a threat to international peace and security.

Originally formulated by Zheng Bijian as part of a Ministry of State Security (MSS) influence operation,

Among Chinese authorities as well as academics, there was disagreement about the term—particularly a concern that the word 'rise' might fuel perceptions that China was a threat to the current status quo. Therefore, since 2004, the term "China's peaceful development" has been used by the Chinese leadership.

Origins

Many of the ideas behind the effort to promote the concept of the peaceful rise of the PRC came from the new security concept, which was formulated by think tanks in the PRC in the mid-1990s. During this time period, Chinese leaders became more careful with China's international image in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, particularly American views of China's growing role internationally.

The term itself was used in a speech given by the former Vice Principal of the Central Party School, Zheng Bijian, in late 2003 during the Boao Forum for Asia. Zheng had formulated the concept following a 2002 visit to the United States, where heard what he deemed as frequent and unsettling references to China as a threat. He coined the term after working with the MSS to study American attitudes toward China.

Under the strategic paradigm of former CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin, China's rapid development was viewed as a multipolarizing change that challenged the unipolarity of the world structure under the United States of America's hegemony.

In diplomacy, the doctrine calls for less assertiveness in border disputes such as those concerning the Spratly Islands, Senkaku Islands, and South Tibet. China still has difficult relations with Japan and continues a military modernization program.

Sino-American relations

The end of the Jiang Zemin leadership marked a turning point in Sino-American relations. A pattern of cooperative coexistence became the new normal. "The United States and China perceived that they needed each other because both were too large to be dominated, too special to be transformed, and too necessary to each other to be able to afford isolation." Chinese leader Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao brought a perspective that was unprecedented in the management of China's development and in defining its role in the world. They represented the first crop of Chinese leaders with no personal experience with the Cultural Revolution and the first to assume power in a China that unambiguously was emerging as a great power. "Coming to power during a long period of sustained domestic growth and in the wake of China's entry into the international economic order, they assumed the helm of a China undeniably "arriving" as a world power, with interests in every corner of the globe."

Australian analyst Alex Joske described the doctrine as disseminated by sustained Ministry of State Security influence operations in the U.S.

Washington responded by describing China as a "responsible stakeholder" in the international system. In a 2005 speech at the National Committee on United States—China Relations, Robert Zoellick, then Deputy Secretary of State, put forward the American response to Zheng's article, which "amounted to an invitation to China to become a privileged member, and shaper, of the international system." "Persisting with taking the path of peaceful development is not the product of a subjective imagination or of some kind of calculations. Rather, it is the result of our profound recognition that both the world today and China today have undergone tremendous changes as well as that China's relations with the world today have also undergone great changes; hence it is necessary to make the best of the situation and adapt to the changes."

  1. China is the largest developing country, and economic development according to globalization is China's main goal. China seeks a multipolar world rather than hegemony, and seeks relations with other countries based on the "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence".
  2. A peaceful international environment is essential for China's development. China's development is a major part of global development, as China has factored in world gains in poverty reduction, and strives to reduce its energy consumption. China's growth has lessened the effects of the Great Recession.
  3. China will develop according to science. It will develop its domestic market and pave a new path to industrialization that is cleaner, and makes more use of information technology and innovation by exploiting its human capital through education.
  4. China will remain open to the outside world for trade. It will promote organizations like the World Trade Organization, and support regional integration through institutions like the ASEAN–China Free Trade Area. It will address trade and exchange rate conflicts on an equal footing with other countries. China will invest abroad and maintain its large labor force and exports for use abroad.
  5. China will promote "democracy in international relations"; with countries interacting on an equal footing through dialog and multilateralism and not coercion. China will promote the full participation of developing countries in international affairs, and also help them develop themselves. There should be trust and not a "Cold War mentality", and arms control and nuclear disarmament should be pursued. China will resolve its remaining border disputes peacefully.

Another white paper with the title China’s Peaceful Development was released in September 2011. It emphasized, "The central goal of China's diplomacy is to create a peaceful and stable international environment for its development."