Fertile Ground
For many years now China has maintained a relationship with developing countries through its bilateral and multilateral diplomacy. Where access to bilateral relationships was not possible, China placed heavy emphasis on its opportunity to meet in multilateral fora. The United Nations, with its rich crop of country representation, was fertile ground for Chinese multilateral diplomacy and a place to sustain a strategy of winning and influencing friends. While it has never been a formal member of the Group of 77 and never held any leadership position in that group, China has always been an active participant in the work of the Group of 77 and an important source of advice. Unless its interests were threatened, it was a vote that the Group of 77 could count on to add some weight to the position it had on a particular issue. Quite often politics and economics collided and for the most part, China took the side of the developing countries or stayed out of the fight altogether by abstaining on the vote at United Nations meetings.
Constantly Connected
Through the medium of its multilateral diplomacy and working with groups like the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77, China was able to stay constantly connected to many developing countries. That connection and working relationship enabled China to
