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 indicative of a relationship that meets the PRC’s criteria and is worthy of a higher level of bilateral cooperation. To improve its diplomatic support further, the PRC also seeks to create what it calls a “comprehensive global partnership network” of its strategic partners to form a global “circle of friends.” Despite its encompassing rhetoric, the PRC uses nomenclature to implicitly rank its level of “partnership.” For example, the PRC ranks Pakistan as its only “all-weather strategic partner,” Russia as its only “comprehensive strategic partner with coordination relations,” and other countries such as Brazil and various states in South and Southeast Asia holding “all-round strategic partnership relations.”

The PRC also promotes reforms to the “global governance system” as part of its diplomatic framework in order to reflect the “profound evolution” of the international order. According to Yang Jiechi, “The global governance system is at an important stage of profound evolution, and global governance has increasingly become the frontier and key issue of China’s foreign work.” To “seize opportunities” for reform, the PRC actively participates in the construction of a new global governance system based upon the Party’s principles. This may be achieved through the creation of new multinational organizations and forums to uphold the authority of the CCP and the PRC’s national sovereignty, security, and development interests. For example, the PRC promotes BRI as an “important practical platform for the concept of the community of common destiny.” BRI also serves to strengthen the PRC’s strategic partnerships, enlarge its network of strategic partners, and advance reforms to the international order to support the PRC’s strategy.

At the same time, PRC leaders probably increasingly seek to protect the PRC’s interests amid an external security environment that is becoming more unstable and dangerous. At the 20th Party Congress in October 2022, Xi proclaimed that “the CCP Central Committee coordinated the overall strategic situation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and major changes in the world unseen in a century.” He added that the “CCP led the entire party, the entire military, and the people of all ethnic groups across the country to effectively deal with the severe and complex international situation and the huge risks and challenges that came one after another.” Although Xi did not mention specific challenges, Russia’s ongoing war of aggression in Ukraine, the PRC’s heightened threat perception of United States, and lingering economic and political consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic almost certainly inform the PRC’s current foreign policy aimed at maximizing the PRC’s ability to shape the international system and better protect PRC’s interests.