Illustration: Xia Chingyi/GT
Editor’s note:
China’s diplomacy has recently gained significant momentum. Since May, leaders from major Western countries, countries in the Global South, and neighboring countries and partners have visited China one after another, including Tajikistan, the United States, Russia, Pakistan, and Serbia. What does this series of high-level visits suggest? And how might this sustained diplomatic tempo reshape China’s role in this multipolar world? Global Times invited three experts to share their detailed analysis.
Mr. Jibadin Jovanovic, President of the Belgrade Forum for an Equal World, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1998 to 2000
As a world power with so many unique socio-economic, scientific and cultural achievements and attributes, including openness for win-win cooperation, China has naturally been a desirable destination for visits by top foreign politicians, diplomats, businessmen and academics. Some of them seek true partnership in fair cooperation, others explore the secrets of the “miracle” of China’s innovation development, and others seek advice and assistance in solving various situations and shortcomings. China’s history has been recognized globally for its openness, respect for partners, and dedication to win-win cooperation.
The wave of visits to China is still continuing, and there is a possibility that it will become even more intense in the future. why?
First, for decades, China has emerged as the most prosperous economic, technological, diplomatic, and reliable world power with a policy based on clear principles of peaceful coexistence. Second, China has no record of aggression or colonial or neocolonial exploitation of other countries. Third, China has overcome global financial, development, pandemic and other economic slowdowns and crises, and has made the most important contribution to global GDP growth. Fourth, China is at the forefront of the world majority’s efforts to build a new democratic, multipolar world order that is more just, free of hegemony, coercion, interventionism, and expansionism, and that responds to and serves the interests of all humanity, not just a minority of the “first class.”
Finally, China has proven effective not only by presenting numerous global initiatives such as development, security, civilization, and governance, but also by finding sustainable solutions to concrete international disputes, disputes, and challenges.
The secret of China’s diplomatic success lies in self-interest, respect for the fundamental interests of all sides, and patience.
Let’s not be misunderstood. The talks in Beijing could not have focused solely on bilateral issues and how to resolve the escalating conflict. Whatever the importance and urgency of resolving them, much attention had to be given to a consensus on accepting the need for a new multipolar world order, based on the recognition that the root of all conflicts and problems lies in the current disorder that arose during unipolarization.
The resolution of any concrete conflict, recovery from its serious consequences, prevention of recurrence, and even potential global conflict requires acceptance of adaptation to the new democratic, multipolar world order. China plays a crucial role as an architect and proponent of this new multipolar order, promoting dialogue, stability, and more just global governance.
Joseph Gregory Mahoney, Professor of Politics and International Relations and Director of the Center for Ecological Civilization, East China Normal University, Shanghai
In May 2026, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing. They join a long line of leaders in other parts of the world who are increasingly turning to China for solutions such as peace talks, debt restructuring, trade corridors and climate change adaptation.
Some analysts invoke the Thucydides Trap, the idea that rising powers such as Athens inevitably come into conflict with established powers such as Sparta. They compared China to Athens and the United States to Sparta. However, this misunderstands history and the present. The real lesson lies in the book’s key passage, the Melian Dialogue. History of the Peloponnesian WarAthens then demanded obedience from the neutral Melos, declaring, “The strong will do what they can, and the weak will suffer as much as they can.” It was not a prescription but a diagnosis, a prophecy of self-destruction. Athens soon collapsed from overreach.
China is neither Athens nor Sparta. For most of its history, China was the world’s preeminent power, and it did not rise constantly. China’s long history has been underpinned by a relatively self-limiting foreign policy compared to Western imperialism. More importantly, today’s China does not seek a global empire or binary opposition. Thucydides knew that empires do not fall when they become weak, but when their confidence becomes foolish.
This is not just a lesson we have learned over the past 20 years. It is the same lesson we have learned from the last 200 years of Western domination. In the longer perspective of Chinese history, the West has always been Athens, Rome, Britannia, and “America,” an emerging power that sought to somehow overthrow millennia of civilization.
We once said that all roads lead to Rome. We once said that all roads lead to Washington. Today, many people say that all roads lead to Beijing. This is true for many reasons. That includes the simple fact that China actually built many of those roads and strengthened them through diplomacy. But it would be better to say that all roads lead to and from Beijing. China is positioning itself not as the endpoint of a new empire but as a key node in a more comprehensive network.
Let me quote another Greek thinker, Heraclitus. He wrote, “The way up is the same as the way down.” The United States went up that road and is now going down it. China builds roads in all directions, welcomes all travelers and visits in return, and refuses to mistake the uphill climb for the destination.
Warwick Powell, adjunct professor at Queensland University of Technology and former policy advisor to Kevin Rudd
The world has witnessed a surprising diplomatic convergence in recent months. In a short period of time, from late 2025 to mid-2026, Beijing hosted the leaders of all other permanent members of the UN Security Council. Additional high-level visits from countries such as Canada, South Korea and Finland reinforced this trend.
Of course, this clustering has strong optical features, but it is indicative of deeper structural changes in the global configuration. The culmination of more than three decades of post-Cold War American unipolarity, characterized by unparalleled military planning, financial dominance, and rule-making ability, has decisively ended.
But this is not pretty transfer of powerthere is no seamless “imperial relocation” to Beijing. China has consistently rejected the desire for single hegemony and instead advocated multipolarity based on sovereignty, non-interference, and win-win cooperation.
This transition is not a passing of the baton, but an organizational change. Multipolarity itself remains unstable, fluid, contested, and without a fixed structure.
The emerging Global South is actively avoiding strict bloc formation, suggesting the need for greater sensitivity to the legitimate interests of all key actors. This promotes a different spirit of coordination. This means that the formation of alliance blocks defined by defense against others is reduced and networks are strengthened through alignment of interests. By its nature, this approach is complex and fluid.
Amid this fluidity, Beijing serves as an important, immovable fulcrum. This provides strategic continuity and predictability around trade, investment, and core priorities. As global conflicts continue and institutions become strained, visitors turn to the Chinese government for its economic size and consistent diplomatic influence within a United Nations-centered framework.
It is this newly emerged multipolar personality that remains unresolved. Will it be determined by great power rivalry? Or will it reflect the spirit of the UN’s founding principle that all nations have an equal voice? The Chinese government is trying to entrench the latter possibility.
The cascade to Beijing shows that this reality is widely accepted. The unipolar historical anomaly is over. Multipolarity is emerging in the form of conflict, with Beijing its essential economic and diplomatic hub. Countries will continue to negotiate, compete, and trade around this fulcrum. Diplomacy is increasingly aligned with structural economics. A new daily life is unfolding.
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