Director of the CCP Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office and Foreign Minister Wang Yi speaking at a reception in Beijing celebrating the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Indonesia and the People’s Republic of China, April 22, 2025
2025 has been both telling and turbulent for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), exposing some structural contradictions even while it tried to project global influence through high-profile diplomacy. On balance, it has been a year of constrained gains, growing uncertainty, and a mounting succession crisis that will only intensify in 2026.
From the public record, several developments stood out. Under the stewardship of Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, and, by extension, leader Xi Jinping, China worked to reinforce its image as a progressive force in the international order. In his December 2024 remarks that shaped much of the diplomatic messaging in 2025, Wang claimed that Chinese diplomacy had “written a new grand chapter of head-of-state diplomacy,” anchored in peace, development, cooperation and win-win outcomes.
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