Abstract

In 1982, China decided to start a non-alliance strategy that was considered to be one of the core policies of China’s Diplomacy. But with the change of leadership in 2013, some debate surrounding this topic has been opened inside and outside China. This study will start by pointing out the innovations and continuities that China’s new leadership has indicated as guidelines in Foreign Policy terms, and what changes may affect or be contradictive with this Non-Alliance Strategy. After this introduction, it will analyze the reasons why China adopted the Non-Alliance Strategy in 1982, and the historical, cultural concepts (such as Face (Mianzi) or Relationships (Guanxi)) and political elements that helped to reinforce it. The third part of this article will shed some light on the importance of the fact that this Non-Alliance Strategy is now being debated and how this debate is evolving.

Key words: Non-alliance strategy, China, diplomacy, innovation, continuity, Mianzi (面子), Guanxi (关系).