ABSTRACT
Xi Jinping has championed China's new economic statecraft, which can be described as “major-country economic statecraft with Chinese characteristics”. China's economic statecraft before Xi Jinping had the strength of a great power and practiced wealth-power transformation on a large scale and across sectors, along with a certain degree of international influence. However, it lacked a key element: the will and capacity for power transition among great powers and for shaping the international order. During Hu Jintao's tenure, the primary goal of China's economic diplomacy is domestic economic and social development. In this sense, prior to Xi Jinping's leadership, China had not yet demonstrated the policy or strategic readiness for implementing great power economic statecraft and lacked the strong will and clear ambitions characteristic of a great power. However, under Xi Jinping's leadership, there was a significant shift, with a growing emphasis on the core objective of China's major-country economic statecraft being to foster power transition and to build a new international order. Thus, Xi Jinping's approach to economic statecraft is closer to what can be qualified as “great power economic statecraft”, though it has not fully achieved this status yet.
