Networking with Chinese Characteristics. The CCP-ID’s Party-To-Party Relations

This paper addresses a largely overlooked actor in China’s foreign relations, the International Department of the Communist Party of China (ID-CPC). Building on an intense travel diplomacy, the ID-CPC maintains a widely stretched network to political elites across the globe. The ID-CPC’s engagement is not new; but since Xi Jinping took office, the CPC has bolstered its efforts to reach out to other parties. In this paper, we seek to gain better understanding on the CCP-ID’s network by addressing the following questions: How does the CCP-ID’s activities compare to other existing (Western) party-to-party engagement? How do partnering parties interpret their interaction with the CCP-ID? What meaning do they give to their engagement with the CCP-ID? And finally, what are the effects of the CCP-ID’s engagement as a channel for organizational learning and the diffusion?