In the first two weeks of 2025, Vice-Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (IDCPC) Sun Haiyan met with the Bangladeshi and Nepali ambassadors to China. This was in line with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deploying an increasingly sophisticated party-to-party diplomatic strategy across South Asia, revealing a comprehensive approach to regional influence that extends beyond traditional state-to-state relations. Through the IDCPC, which is also known as the International Liaison Department, Beijing has developed a systematic framework for building and maintaining influence through party-level relationships in South Asia, demonstrated by an intensive series of diplomatic engagements throughout 2024.
The IDCPC, established in 1951, serves as the CCP's primary organ for conducting relations with foreign political parties and organisations. While technically separate from China's state diplomatic apparatus under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the IDCPC plays a crucial and complementary role in advancing Chinese foreign policy objectives. The department maintains contacts with hundreds of political parties across the globe and has evolved from its original focus on communist and socialist parties to engage with a broad spectrum of political organisations. Under Minister Liu Jianchao's leadership, the IDCPC has taken on an increasingly prominent role in China's international engagement strategy, particularly in developing regions like South Asia where party-to-party relationships offer unique channels for influence building.
The IDCPC's organisational structure reveals a carefully calibrated approach to diplomatic engagement. At the helm, Liu handles strategic-level interactions, while Vice-Minister Sun manages regular diplomatic engagements across the region. Liu, appointed in 2022, has taken a more active diplomatic role than his predecessor and could become the country’s next foreign minister. Sun spent the majority of her career at the IDCP. Prior to her appointment as the first female vice-minister of the IDCPC in 2023, she was the Chinese ambassador to Singapore.
This two-tier system enables China to maintain both high-level strategic dialogue and consistent working-level engagement. For instance, when engaging with Pakistan, Liu led the China–Pakistan Political Parties Forum and the third meeting of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor Political Parties Joint Consultation Mechanism, while Sun handled regular interactions with delegations from various Pakistani political parties.
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