The "good neighbour policy" in the context of China's foreign relations

No major foreign policy initiatives or changes were carried out at the Chinese Communist Party’s 17 th National Congress in October 2007 or the first session of the 11 th National People’s Congress in March 2008. This was unsurprising, since they occurred around the mid-term of the tenure of China’s current Ho Jintao-Wen Jiabao leadership. Yet, China’s rising diplomatic, economic and strategic profile in the world means that closer attention should be paid to the continuities and adjustments in the formulation and conduct of its foreign policy, since it will have a definite effect on the international community, and particularly states in China’s neighbourhood of Southeast Asia, Russia-Central Asia, Northeast Asia and South Asia.