by Faced with a decline in foreign investment in its country, China has tried to soften its image in the United States and Europe and be nice to some of its neighbors. A Communist Party official has played an unusually prominent role in the change in tone.
In New York, he told an audience of academics and businessmen that China is not seeking to rewrite the U.S.-led global order. In Paris, he said that China’s modernization would benefit Europe and the world. In Beijing, he said The ambassador of India, a regional rival, said China hoped relations would “return to a healthy and stable path.”
The official, Liu Jianchao, heads the diplomatic arm of the Communist Party, a body that promotes the party’s ideology and influence abroad. However, his recent engagements suggest to analysts that he has been auditioning for the role of China’s next foreign minister.
For Beijing, naming a new foreign minister, potentially as early as March during a legislative meeting, would help stabilize the country’s diplomatic apparatus after a dramatic reshuffle last year.
In July, the party abruptly dismissed Qin Gang, then foreign minister, amid speculation that he had been in a romantic relationship that potentially compromised national security. Mr. Qin’s predecessor, Wang Yi, was re-elected to the position; Mr. Wang is also the head of the party’s foreign affairs commission, a position normally held by someone other than the foreign minister.
Liu’s appointment would signal a move away from the abrasive “wolf warrior” diplomacy that has come to symbolize China’s assertive stance under China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, at least in tone if not substance.
Liu, who speaks fluent English and briefly studied at Oxford University, has a knack for defending Beijing’s most ardent positions, such as its claims to the autonomous island of Taiwan, without being scathing. Mr. Liu is considered a party loyalist and has burnished its reputation by helping to lead a controversial campaign called Operation Fox Hunt to win back corrupt businessmen and officials from abroad.
Many who have met Liu say he is more informal and engaging than other Chinese officials and appears comfortable going off script.
“Liu is a seasoned diplomat who brings to his dialogues the relaxed confidence of a senior party cadre, something missing from most Chinese Foreign Ministry officials who cautiously recite the party line,” said Danny Russel, vice president of Asia Society Policy. Institute and former US deputy secretary of state who spoke with Liu at a meeting hosted by the Asia Society, a research group, in New York.
At another event in New York, Liu downplayed the severity of China’s economic slowdown, defended Beijing’s ties with Moscow and portrayed his country as a peaceful nation that had no interest in changing the current international order, nor in creating one. new.
“We are one of the builders of the current world order and we have benefited from it,” he said in the conversationorganized by the Council on Foreign Relations.
The comment understates China’s position, said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington. China supports only some aspects of the global order, such as its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, but opposes other aspects it sees as a challenge, such as the US-led NATO.
Still, Ms. Sun said, it was important that a senior Chinese official decided to highlight Beijing’s intentions about the global order because it “aims to reduce the pace and temperature” of its relationship with Washington.
Mr. Liu rose through the ranks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, first as a translator and then as a spokesperson, gaining prominence working with foreign media during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He later served as ambassador to the Philippines and Indonesia.
In 2015, Liu took on the job of hunting overseas fugitives as vice minister of the feared Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party’s secretive and powerful internal anti-corruption agency.
In that role, Liu displayed his negotiation skills, recovering large sums of escaped money and capturing high-profile fugitives such as Lai Changxing, a Chinese businessman and billionaire who fled to Canada to avoid charges of running a smuggling ring. Mr. Lai was convicted and is now serving a life sentence. Human rights groups have described the Fox Hunt campaign as a form of transnational repression.
Liu again bolstered his party’s credentials in 2017 when he was named top anti-corruption official in the coastal province of Zhejiang, where Xi once served as party leader. He was named deputy director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission, a high-level party office that was formed in 2018 as Xi sought to give the party even more control over China’s international relations strategy.
During his decade in power, Xi has pushed to expand the party’s control over the country’s vast government bureaucracy and Chinese society. “East, west, south, north and center, the party runs everything,” Xi said at a party conclave in 2017.
That change was underscored again when Liu was appointed to his current position in 2022 as head of the International Liaison Department. Traditionally, the department was responsible for maintaining close ties with the communist parties of other countries such as North Korea and Vietnam. He left regular diplomacy between States in the hands of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Liu has broken those norms by meeting with foreign ministers around the world, giving the party access to rarely publicized back channels of diplomacy. While in the United States in January, Liu met with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, in a rare meeting between the acting head of the Department of International Liaison and a secretary of state.
China and the United States stabilized relations in November following a summit between Xi and President Biden outside San Francisco. But tensions could be reignited by a series of disputes that remain unresolved, including the status of Taiwan and restrictions on technology exports to China.
In Britain, Liu signaled China’s determination to firmly protect its interests. At a panel held in Britain last summer, Liu was asked about “wolf warrior” diplomacy. He responded with his usual kindness and explained that China wanted to make friends all over the world. But he warned: “When China is under pressure and its policies are under pressure, we demonstrate a fighting spirit.”
Olivia Wang contributed reports.
