The Emergence of a New Multipolar International Order and the Expansion of China's Belt and Road Initiative Strategy

Jaehung Chung

Director of Center for Chinese Studies

Jameschung@sejong.org

   Since the 20th Party Congress, the most significant foreign policy change in Xi Jinping's third-term leadership has formalized the establishment of a new multipolar international order in close cooperation with global South countries, including Russia, without embracing a rules-based liberal international order led by the United States and the West. In particular, with the launch of Xi Jinping's third-term leadership in March 2023, China and Central Asia's five-nation summit and the third Belt and Road Initiative International Cooperation Summit were held one after another, demonstrating its mid-long term goal of promoting a multipolar international order. After two sessions, President Xi Jinping visited Russia on March 20 as his first overseas visit to show Sino-Russo strategic security-economic cooperation in the 21st century to create a multipolar international order and democratization with President Putin. He also began to engage in political-economic-security cooperation and solidarity with the Global South countries hoping to establish a new multipolar international order, including Central Asia, Iran, North Korea, Africa, and South America.