During China's remarkable economic rise, it has used economic diplomacy primarily through trade, and the use of carrots as a means to accumulate or attract soft power. This was a part of the broader strategy formulated by think tanks in the PRC during the 1990s titled the new security concept. It is referred to in the West as the period of "China's Peaceful Rise".
Recently, China has changed its strategic doctrine and begun to use economic diplomacy as a coercive tool. After 10 years or so of a policy based primarily on economic carrots, China has begun to show a willingness to use economic diplomacy for coercive means.
This is evidenced in the September 2010 incident that blocked shipments of rare earth minerals to Japan. Another incident took place in 2012 in the Philippines, where China sent a gunboat in to enforce trade restricts. China's willingness to use bring in warships during trade disputes is reminiscent to an earlier era of American gunboat diplomacy.
Recent history shows that as China grows more confident, we will see it gradually move away from an economic diplomacy policy of carrots, to sticks.
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