Chairman Mao Zedong was the main architect of New China's foreign policy. Being a keen observer of international relations, Mao adjusted China's foreign policy to suit the global strategic situation. With Mao's 120th birth anniversary to be celebrated on Dec 26, it's time to re-explore his strategic thinking that still has its importance today.

China's victory in the new-democratic revolution in 1949 fulfilled Chinese people's long-cherished dream of national liberation. To safeguard the hard-won freedom, Chairman Mao set the basic premises of China's diplomacy: be independent, defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and establish and develop diplomatic relations with other countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit. These basic principles guided New China's independent foreign policy of peace and mutually respectful relations with other countries.

At a time when New China faced the arduous task of national reconstruction, Mao made maintenance of world peace as the main objective of the nation's foreign policy. He advocated that all countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal and should respect each other, and oppose hegemonism and power politics.