It pays to be cautious rather than bold

At the United Nations, for example, on issues from Syria today to Bosnia almost two decades ago, a recurring complaint goes like this: Why doesn't China as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council exercise more leadership? But the perceived Chinese drag is less deliberate than cultural, and its oft-proclaimed doctrine of "non-interference in the internal affairs" of member states is anything but unique in Asia. India, the world's largest democracy, with a distinctive diplomatic tradition, takes a similar stance. So does Russia under President Vladimir Putin.

For all that, in recent years Chinese diplomacy has advanced from Bosnian abstention to - more recently - Syrian affirmation. The recent UN Security Council resolution requiring Damascus to offer its chemical weapons for international confiscation not only got Moscow's assent but Beijing's as well.

Beijing desires to work with the US on major issues to the extent consistent with its core national interests. It is opposed to starting a second Cold War and still views domestic economic stability as an existential goal.

The other factor at the UN is that Beijing trusts Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has been working behind the scenes on the Syrian crisis far more actively than is generally known. Ban stuck to his guns in not caving in to the request of the initially eager-to-flex-military-muscle Barack Obama administration, which wanted the UN to unplug the independent investigation into the chemical weapons massacre. That act of resistance was pivotal. It demonstrated anew that the UN was a world organization with its own mind, no limp Western puppet.

In part as a result, China's 68th UN season will probably prove less predictable than in the past. The diplomatic instincts of President Xi Jinping and the rest of the new Chinese leadership have yet to reveal themselves. But the betting here is that China under Xi may be less inclined to be so fearful of the new at the UN. Yes, the times are changing.

The author is an American journalist and university lecturer, and the author of the Giants of Asia series.

(China Daily 10/25/2013 page9)