Observe: China's tactic of making timely "concessions" towards various western powers in order to prevent them from feasibly uniting against it is not a sign of weakness, but an age old diplomatic gambit which has been utilized in every generation of its leadership.

Beijing's foreign policy logic has always construed itself in terms of "potential encirclement" by enemies, both physically, militarily and diplomatically. One of its key objectives since the foundation of the PRC has been to prevent this from happening, be it the US or USSR.

Case Study 1: How China outflanked the Soviet Union. The common ideology of Communism clouds the historical reality of the Sino-Soviet split, with Mao Zedong perceiving the USSR as a threat to China's national security, and thus a competitor particularly because of revisionism.

As a result, from the 1960s onwards China sought to prevent strategic encirclement by the USSR. Sometimes, this involved the use of force (Sino-Vietnamese war, Sino-Indian war) to forcefully decouple countries from it, but sometimes it involved concessions, such opening to the US

It also involved tactfully playing the US and USSR against each other. In 1958, Mao affronted the Soviet Union (as they were still treaty allies on paper) by creating a Taiwan strait crisis by shelling Jinmen and drawing the U.S in. This was a deterrent.

Case Study 2: China in a unipolar US world. In 1989, China feared global isolation because of Tiananmen. Consider that it was a lot smaller and a lot weaker than it is now. The USSR was gone and the US was at its height. It faced sanctions and ostracism, how did it break out?

The answer was diplomacy and concessions. If we turn to Garver- "China's Quest" he sets out in an elaborate detailed account how Deng Xiaoping made tactful concessions to the U.S which included not getting in the way of the Gulf War and abstaining to anti-Iraq sanctions to pass.

During this period of the 1980s and 1990s, China avoided confronting the U.S altogether and this was what was known as the "lying low" or "taoguangyanghui" policy. The objective was to keep the United States on board whilst the international power disparity was huge, it worked.

Often, as the aforementioned examples have alluded to, China has often took the risk and sacrifice of making "smaller enemies" in order to contain larger ones indirectly. It has always been Beijing's preference not to particularly confront a hegemon, but indirectly chip away.

Now, let's roll to the present: The 1960 and 2020 conflicts with India are motivated by the same logic: To strategically outflank New Delhi to contain its ability to side with a power against China, first the USA, and then the USSR. Beijing holds the balance of power here.

Also, the Australia dispute: China is not confronting the U.S directly, but sees cost-benefit gains in weakening the states which support its agenda the most, even if it makes enemies out of them. Beijing is indirectly resisting the U.S by raising costs for Canberra to support it

Simultaneously, China is now utilizing its age old strategy of making strategic concessions with other parties in order to prevent a broader unification against it. Setting the goal of completing the EU-China investment treaty in 2020 and succeeding is a big win here.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is also cut from the same cloth. Although this is more than just a "China deal"- Beijing pushed hard to get it completed because it was nonetheless aware of the strategic implications of doing so.

What is the next step? China is working to upgrade its free trade relationship with South Korea, a country which under Park Geun-Hye it utilized the "Punishment" strategy against for following U.S objectives. It worked and resulted in a pro-China Moon Jae in.

Conclusion: These western centric claims of "wolf warrior diplomacy" obscure and distract from the fact that China is in fact one of the most tactically adept diplomatic players in the world, who is very good at playing 3D Chess against its opponents.

Why? Because unlike the USSR, China is not dogmatic, it is pragmatic, it was even under Mao's foreign policy. It knows how to adapt to survive and prevent the walls closing in on it. It knows how to outflank comprehensive attempts to contain it.