Partnership / 伙伴关系
BRIEF
The UN defines partnership as an ongoing collaborative relationship based on alignment of interests around a common vision. It is aimed at combining complementary resources and competencies as well as sharing risks, in order to maximise value creation and deliver benefits to all parties involved. The concept differs from alliances, which are formal agreements with binding commitments, such as NATO’s Article 5 collective defence clause.
The Chinese official discourse emphasises that “China does not have allies, but has friends with partnership diplomacy.” It argues that while alliances are grounded in the “old thinking of confrontation and bloc mentality,” China’s partnerships are rooted in mutual benefit, non-alignment, and the principle of “seeking common ground while maintaining differences.” Under Xi Jinping, constructing a global network of partnerships that promotes cooperation over confrontation has been framed as key to safeguarding China’s development and geopolitical space. China has built a layered system of over one hundred bilateral partnerships, ranging from “strategic” to “all-weather” or “comprehensive,” which vary in formality and depth. Though framed as flexible and non-aligned, these partnerships increasingly serve geopolitical functions.
ANALYSIS
In the Mao era, the term partnership carried strongly negative connotations, associated with U.S. foreign policy rhetoric. The People’s Daily frequently referred to “so-called ‘partnerships’” as tools of imperialism, portraying relationships between the U.S. or Western Europe with Asian or African states as exploitative. In contrast, China promoted friendship, non-alignment, and mutually beneficial cooperation.
It was only after the launch of Reform and Opening in the late 1970s that China began referring to other countries as its partners. At the time, this was almost always used with a qualifier, such as trade partner, economic partner, or partner for China’s modernisation. Brazil became the first country to be named partner without qualifiers in 1985, when Premier Zhao Ziyang, during a visit, proposed that China and Brazil could become “friends and partners”. In 1993 Brazil became the first country with which China established a strategic partnership – now regarded in the official discourse as the start of China’s partnership diplomacy.
Throughout the 1990s, China established a series of partnerships, including the Strategic Partnership of Coordination and Equality for the 21st Century with Russia in 1996, and in 1997 a Long-term Comprehensive Partnership with France, and an agreement to work toward a “constructive strategic partnership” with the United States.
In official discourse, partnership was positioned as a counter-narrative to alliance (结盟). The concept of Great Power Partnership was presented as a “new type of international relations” between China and major powers of the post-Cold War era like the US, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, or Japan. Chinese diplomats argue that partnering without alignment (结伴不结盟) is based on the idea that alliances are about finding enemies, while partnerships are about making friends. However, when Xi Jinping introduced the concept of a Global Network of Partnerships in November 2014, he framed it in explicitly strategic terms. Xi called for deeper cooperation and partnerships to help increase China’s soft power and safeguard China’s development and geopolitical space. Xi’s statement has since been linked to the Comprehensive National Security Outlook – China’s national security strategy. Partnerships are a tool to counter what China perceives as global US-hegemony.
According to official statements, China has partnerships with nearly 100 countries, structured across more than 20 types and five categories. These range from strategic (战略) partnerships, the most commonly used category, held with at least 80 countries, to all-weather (全天候) or permanent partnerships held with countries such as Pakistan, Venezuela, and Belarus. Though described as flexible and non-binding, upgrades in partnership status to “comprehensive” or “strategic” often coincide with broader agendas and more formalised mechanisms of cooperation. Despite being frames as “non-aligned” and value-neutral, global partnerships are a tool for promoting the “democratisation of the international relations” (国际关系民主化) and building a “Community of Shared Future for Mankind” – a network designed to counter what China perceives as global US-hegemony and advance a more multipolar world order.
