China's reform and opening up policy has been implemented for forty years since 1978. With the aim to summarize and review China's foreign policies over the past 40 years, the paper combines key speeches with diplomatic events to draw a picture of consistency and evolution of China's diplomacy. Deng Xiaoping has pointed out that “peace and development” are themes for the development of the world and that China should “keep a low profile to make a difference”, both of which have served as the guiding principles of China's diplomacy. In a multipolar world, China embraces more active foreign policy in order to protect overseas interests and to promote sustainable development. President Xi's diplomatic concepts are the continuation and implementation of Deng's thoughts on foreign policy, which fit China's current external environment. Overall, the paper argues that China's foreign policy has successfully provided a positive external environment for China's reform and openingup.

The arbitration on the South China Sea is a typical case to review the development and influence of international jurisdiction. The increase of judicial institutions and practices, as well as the mandatory application of judicial procedures manifests the expansion of international jurisdiction, reflecting the transition of international dispute settlement mechanism from poweroriented to ruleoriented. However, the authority and credibility of international jurisdiction are not fully established due to the imperfection of international law, western leanings of its system and political intervention in the judicial process. For China, the advantages and values of international jurisdiction shall be recognized on one hand, and on the other hand, its limitations and potential risks should also be aware. Furthermore, it is reasonable for China to continue the practice of differentiated participation in the near future. Meanwhile, China shall participate in the reform progress of international jurisdiction, as well as establish the dispute settlement mechanism and institutions of the Belt and Road Initiative, for the purpose of promoting the ability to participate in and lead the international jurisdiction.

Since World War II, international regimes have become the main way of global governance in the background of regionalization and globalization. Although antiglobalization might have become an undercurrent disrupting the development of the world, the construction of efficient international regimes still makes an important way for the international community to deal with challenges, address risks and deepen cooperation. However, there exist many international regimes with complex relations, and the overlap of regimes is prominent. In particular, the effective functioning of international regimes has been severely restricted by overlaps of actors, issue areas and functional governance in international regimes. With unique geopolitical position, the Mekong region has always been a land of the game among great powers. As a result, there are many bilateral and multilateral international regimes, which prominently overlap with each other. In 2016, China proposed the LancangMekong Cooperation (LMC) regime, and it was warmly received by Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos. Looking for approaches to deal with increasingly serious overlap of regimes in this region, however, has become the primary task in the construction of the LMC regime. The paper argues that adjusting the regimes layout in the actors, propelling the coordination and cooperation in the issue areas, and innovating the cooperation mechanism in the functional governance are key factors for the LMC regime to stand out from the international regimes and enhance its competitiveness.

The say in foreign policy is mostly dominated by Western countries, although the international power system is increasingly multi-polarized since the end of the Cold War. Exploring the fact that the national strength mismatches its say in foreign policy contributes to the understanding and construction of Chinas international say. Existing literature holds the say in foreign policy finds its foundation in whether the discourse met with the “universal value” and whether a communication platform could be established based on communities. The paper argues that asymmetric information leads to such a mismatch. The costly signal, which contributes to lowering the level of asymmetric information through localized and professional strategies and international institution, is pivotal in gaining a corresponding say in foreign policy.

The US recently imposes a range of unilateral trade protection measures to hit “unfair” practices of trade partners on the pretext of implementing the US “Fair Trade” policies. These measures caused America a lot of disputes with many economies. China and the U.S. are in grave tension particularly, since the two sides have huge differences over key topics such as intellectual property protection, and no economic agreement has been reached. Simultaneously, they compete with each other increasingly fiercely in hi-tech industrial sectors and new trade areas. In the historical perspective, Section 301, 201, 232, and 337 as trade policy instruments, are of significance to maintain the advanced position for the U.S. as a hegemony. Therefore, reducing the Chinese surplus with the US cannot alleviate the tension. Instead, China should insist on a multilateral mechanism to maintain its institutional interests, deepen economic openingup to establish institutions of cooperation, and promote trade policy compliance to develop the industrial policy “Made in China 2025”.

 SinoLatin America energy cooperation makes an important part of SinoLatin America economic cooperation, which foresees broad prospects while faces many challenges at the same time. Among them, the influence of the US in Latin America constitutes one of the many challenges that cannot be overlooked. After Trump took power, the US energy policy, compared with the previous administration, has changed significantly, which includes: promoting the development of the energy industry, deregulating the energy industry, revising conditions on energy trade and reducing energyrelated budget. These changes in policies may affect key issues of energy relations between the US and Latin America, such as trade, investment, integration, clean energy, and emission reduction cooperation. Against the backdrop of continuous changes in the global energy landscape, China and Latin America energy relations are currently undergoing a period of adjustment after the peak period. At present, the transformation of the US energy policy to some extent happens to provide a series of new opportunities for deepening ChinaLatin America energy cooperation. Opportunities include increasing Latin Americas energy supply to China, promoting diversification of China's investment and finance in Latin American energy industry, and creating new space for ChinaLatin America energy diplomacy and cooperation on global climate governance. China should seize the opportunity and take advantage of the impact of changes in the US energy policy to further deepen SinoLatin America energy cooperation.

As one of the most important parts of the Belt and Road Initiative, ChinaAfrica maritime traffic has great potential for cooperation. Seaport and ground access facility in subSaharan Africa lag behind and have severely impeded its economic development. At present, guided by regional plan, regional cooperation organizations and countries have begun to promote the construction of corridors and ports for transportation. In the process of coordinating the infrastructure development plan of Africa, Chinese financing agencies, construction and operation companies have built, invested, and operated some port projects along the African coast to promote interAfrican connectivity as well as ChinaAfrica maritime connectivity. However, the Chinese enterprises are confronted with economic risks derived from projects layout, the role of SOEs and operation pattern; social risks triggered by environmental issues and economic nationalism; and geopolitical risks caused by external political factors. These risk factors are often intertwined with and triggered by each other. With the aim to strengthen Chinas participation in African port projects and promote SinoAfrica maritime connectivity, it will be of great significance to properly handle the risks. Therefore, the Chinese government, financing agencies, construction and investment companies need to coordinate to improve the risk assessment and layout of projects, expand financing channels, strengthen social risk prevention, establish the community of stakeholders, and make the best of the multilateral platform of cooperation.

Thanks to the geographical advantages of choke points in Maritime Strategic Thoroughfares, countries managing choke points have less hindered, cheaper and more efficient access to foreign resources and markets necessary for national development than other countries. Managing pattern transformation of the choke points mean fundamental changes of ownership structures on geographical dominance, in which two variables play decisive roles: changes in geographical advantages of choke points and the capabilitybased competition among the countries that harness the choke points. When emerging countries harnessing the choke points expands their overseas ties, they will become increasingly dependent on the geographical advantages of the choke points. In the process, these countries are prone to invest more strength and resources in the region, which give rise to three kinds of managing pattern transformation: the number of countries as managers; the structures of capabilitybased competition among countries as comanagers and the authority of the sole country as manager.

 In the 1950s, when the issue concerning Nansha Qundao was highlighted, the British government discussed how to deal with the position of Nanwei Dao and Anbo Shazhou which were historically relevant. However, the unanimous opinion of the British government was that the “sovereignty” proposal was invalid due to a weak legal basis, which has been expressed in foreign exchanges. In response to the Nansha issue, on the one hand, the British government neither recognized any other sides claim on Nansha Qundao, nor publicly renounced claim on the two islands; on the other hand, it holds a neutral stance and did not interfere in the Nansha Qundao issue, while in the actual analysis, it gave tacit consent to the fact that sovereignty over the two islands belongs to China, and questioned the claim made by the Philippines and the authorities from South Vietnam. In the context that the United Kingdom is losing out in Southeast Asia, Britain had gradually to step out of the stage on the Nansha Qundao issue, considering its lack of any real geographical interest in Nansha Qundao. However, collection and analysis of certain intelligence made by relevant British departments could contribute to an objective understanding of the situation in the South China Sea and stances of other sides. Unlike the containment strategy of the United States, the United Kingdom made its own stance over the South China Sea on the basis of geopolitical drives, which reflected its autonomy in decisionmaking concerning the South China Sea.