Milestone year for China's diplomacy

Beijing's efforts, of course, have borne fruits in many areas. With its diplomatic network expanding, Beijing has established comprehensive strategic partnerships with 67 countries and five international organizations, and a Global Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century with the UK, which many say could be the beginning of a "golden era" of bilateral relations.

The embedded demonstrative effects are also evident in the Belt and Road Initiative, which at least 60 countries and international organizations have supported. Moreover, China has inked a memorandum of cooperation on production capacity with more than 20 economies, injecting fresh momentum into its neighborhood diplomacy.

The international community has come to value China's global contributions to poverty alleviation, world economy and UN peacekeeping missions, along with its philosophy of development.

Since the 2008 global financial crisis China's average contribution to global economic growth has been 30 percent or more, almost twice as much as the US'. And China's pragmatic participation in the Development Centre of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in July and the annual G20 summit in Turkey in November helped promote its social governance and diplomatic ideas worldwide.

China's active participation on the world stage is the key to fulfilling the world's increasing demand for quality public goods, which also explains the success of the AIIB and the Belt and Road Initiative, namely the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. In particular, that Europe now plays a bigger part in China's foreign policy - as its newly acquired membership of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development indicates - is a source of hope for the country's future success in diplomacy.

The author is a professor of international relations, Renmin University of China.