New Delhi, India - China probably thinks it is still an intermediate power, but rapidly on its way up. If you start with that presumption, any unqualified participating in efforts to enhance international security, necessarily dominated by the U.S., would amount to punching below what you think should be your weight on international stage.
China, therefore, seems to be following a more circumspect approach, not keen to take sides, or rather taking the only side that seems virtuous. At the same time, it is no longer doing some of the things that threatened international security in the past, such as totally uncontrolled transfer of missile technologies to difficult powers like Iran and Pakistan. Essentially, it seems to me they are hesitant to whole-heartedly join a West/U.S.-led international security regime.
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