By Robert Williams
The rhetoric of the recent Fourth Plenum could offer a guide to a new model of bilateral relations.
With U.S. President Barack Obama in Beijing preparing for a summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, China appears to be embracing the concept of rules-based governance. That could be good news for a U.S. administration eager for deliverables in its “rebalance” to Asia.
At the conclusion of the Fourth Plenum of the Communist Party’s Central Committee in late October, Xi Jinping presented a decision document outlining a new policy agenda based on “governing in accordance with law.” Although at first blush the decision seems a strictly in-house exercise in cleaning up the ruling Communist Party, it may present a new opening for the United States to engage China on rules-based approaches to global challenges.
The Fourth Plenum agenda is primarily about the Party’s domestic governance. The announced legal reforms are designed to constrain wayward bureaucrats, improve transparency and fairness in the judicial system, and generally make the Party a more effective governing machine. They aim to improve the Party’s credibility among the Chinese public at a time of economic slowdown and social transition. To that end, the Plenum decision endorses an approach to governance in which rules play a central role – constraining lower-level officials, building public trust in the legal system, and maintaining stability through more accountable governance.
But a closer look at the Fourth Plenum reveals subtle implications for China’s foreign policy.
Read the full story at The Diplomat