The COVID-19 pandemic as a factor of China’s foreign and domestic policies

Abstract

The article analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Chinese foreign and domestic policies during 2020. The main provisions, approaches, and dynamics of Chinese foreign policy in its key regional directions – towards the United States, European Union, the Asia-Pacific region, Russia, and some developing countries – are considered. Against the background of China’s domestic success in suppressing the COVID-19 infection, Beijing also intentionally uses the coronavirus agenda to boost the nation’s foreign policy that is increasingly acquiring global character. As the China-U.S. relations remained in poor shape, the Chinese foreign policy has continued to shift its focus towards the EU and the Asia-Pacific region with the purpose of stepping up economic cooperation with these regions. The authors explore in detail the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on China’s economy and the key measures taken by the authorities to ensure economic stabilization and steady progress. These measures aim at searching for a new model of development based and centered on the domestic market. The effectiveness of these new approaches has so far allowed China to cope with the pandemic with minimum losses, as compared with other large countries, and to maintain positive dynamics of its development.