With China’s political class arrayed before him this month, Xi Jinping summed up his robust foreign policy to delegates with one vivid refrain: “dare to fight”.

The declaration at the National People’s Congress captured a new ethos for Beijing, spurred by the Chinese leader’s conclusion that the US-led world order is now in decline and ready to be replaced with a system that better suits China’s interests.

A flurry of diplomacy has already begun. Emerging from the self-isolation of China’s zero-Covid policy, the president conducted a state visit to Russia this month, published a paper on peace in Ukraine and prepared to receive visits from European leaders eager for his help to end the war. Also this month China convinced Iran and Saudi Arabia to resume diplomatic relations, its first such success as a mediator in the Middle East.

More subtly, China has put flesh on the bones of a series of foreign policy “initiatives” to create alternative structures for international co-operation, particularly with the developing world.