ABSTRACT
With China’s rise on the global stage, its strategic partnership policy has also reflected a broader shift of its development path and diplomacy paradigm. In particular, since Xi took full power in the 18th CPC National Congress in November 2012, China’s diplomatic policy has been substantially changed under his leadership. In this paper, we shed light on China’s partnership diplomacy under this strong man. With the empirical evidence, we spell out the conditions under which China established strategic partnerships with partners in the periods of 2005–2012 and 2012–2019. A multivariate parametric functions regression of survival analysis is employed for the examination to better grasp the determinants. By using the survival analysis, we draw a few findings. First, China’s partnership diplomacy has prioritised its diplomatic partner countries with the strategic and economic interests within the regional context. Second, China’s partnership-building has shaped its own international social network in favour of its national interests. With the interest-maximisation assumption, China under Xi’s leadership has facilitated the cooperation with the like-minded countries in the specific areas which share China’s views on the norms and the visions of the global order. Furthermore, China’s partnership-building has shifted toward advanced countries with abundant economic and S&T resources. In Xi’s regime, China’s pursuit of the resources available for its further development has become the centre of its partner diplomacy.
