Xi Jinping gets legal powers to counter Western hegemony

By News Desk

BEIJING: China has passed a new foreign relations law that deepens President Xi Jinping’s control over the country’s external relations and strengthens the government’s legal basis for “countermeasures” against western threats to national and economic security.

The nationalist Global Times tabloid said the law, which takes effect on Saturday, would provide a “legal basis for the diplomatic struggle against sanctions” as well as sound a “warning and deterrence against western hegemony”.

The law also enshrined a number of Xi’s hallmark policies such as the Global Security Initiative, a proposed alternative international defence framework that experts see as a long-term challenge to the US-led order.

China’s top legislature passed the Foreign Relations Law on Wednesday, marking a milestone significance as it is the first fundamental and comprehensive foreign relations law that aims to fix the loopholes in the rule of law in foreign-related affairs amid new challenges in foreign relations, especially when China has been facing frequent external interference in its internal affairs under the Western hegemony with unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction.

Divided into six chapters, the legislation stipulates the guidance and basic principle of foreign relations and specific provisions on the functions and powers of foreign relations, the objectives and tasks of the development of foreign relations, the legal system of foreign relations, and the capacity building and guarantee for the development of foreign relations, according to the approved version.

Some legal experts said that the law inherited China’s long-term diplomatic stance and its position on international rule of law, upgrading policies and systems for foreign affairs management to national law, and legally interpreting and elaborating on a series of new ideas and initiatives in global governance.

With the implementation of the law and the introduction of more legislation on foreign affairs in the future, China’s ability to defend its interests and people through legislations will be continuously improved, they noted.

The law also enshrined a number of Xi’s hallmark policies such as the Global Security Initiative, a proposed alternative international defence framework that experts see as a long-term challenge to the US-led order. Willy Lam, a senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation, said while the law did not guarantee Beijing would take greater actions, it would “tighten” Xi’s strong control over matters related to national security, underscoring the long-term ambitions of China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

“Xi Jinping remains committed to building up a China-centric ‘new world order’ to defy the US-led western order, which has been in existence since the second world war,” he said.

The National People’s Congress (NPC) issued the draft of the law in December 2022, and the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the NPC says the draft legislation has the support of NPC deputies; members of the advisory body - the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference; legal experts and the public.

“In recent years, the changes of external environment have brought new conflicts and challenges for China, and the loopholes in the rule of law in foreign-related affairs are gradually revealed,” Huo Zhengxin, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Wednesday.