NEW PUBLICATION: CMG’s external evaluation of the Swiss government’s China Strategy (March 2021), mandated by the Swiss MFA #CMG-pub
- China Macro Group (CMG)
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Produced by CMG on behalf of the State Secretariat of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA)
April 2025 | Herewith, we are sharing the newest CMG publication: the external evaluation of the Swiss government’s China Strategy (2021-2024) which CMG carried out for the State Secretariat of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).
The evaluation – conducted between August and October 2024 – is now publicly accessible on the Swiss government’s website ARAMIS, its platform for politically relevant impact assessments entirely or partially funded by the Confederation, in German language as the sole official version.
While CMG produced the official evaluation in German, we also created a machine-translated, pragmatically edited non-official English version to facilitate easier access for all interested international colleagues and institutions.
Not aware of any other systematic and formal third-party evaluation of a “Western” country’s China strategy/policy that is fully publicly released – which we see as consistent with the “Whole of Switzerland” approach towards China as proposed by the ‘China Strategy’ –, we believe this evaluation provides conceptual and operational insights to national and sub-national governments, think-tanks, industry associations, corporate government affairs teams as well as to media interested in the day-to-day execution of bilateral and multilateral foreign policy and diplomacy towards China, exemplified with the case of Switzerland.
As a background, in parallel with the launch of the Foreign Policy Strategy 2020-2023 (FPS 20-23) the Swiss government introduced a systematic foreign policy strategy “cascade”, a strategy framework, to strengthen its foreign policy coherence, consisting of key geographic and thematic foreign policy strategies under the umbrella of the FPS 20-23.
Thereby, the Foreign Policy Strategy – currently in its 2024-2027 version – is the Swiss government’s top-level foreign policy articulation, underpinned by policy documents on the strategic (currently nine strategies) and operational (currently five action plans/guidelines) levels. In this strategy “cascade”, the China Strategy stands out as the only country-specific foreign policy strategy. It was published in March 2021 with formal validity until end of 2024.
Following the political debate in the Swiss national parliament over recent months, the renewal of the China Strategy will fall within the context of a broader perspective, taking into account the four other G20 countries in Asia: India, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea. This upcoming Asia G20 Strategy 2025-2028 will further the principles developed in the China Strategy.
For CMG it is unusual to have a client product made publicly accessible, so the more we are invite your feedback and questions, plus we are interested in opportunities to discuss with interested parties or explore how we can assist your business needs.
Moreover, we use this opportunity to say that this evaluation showcases what we as a specialized European management consulting and research firm want to stand for: tailored and creative project conceptualization, analytical rigor, ability to listen and synthesize, deep thematic expertise as well as client-tailored conclusions / recommendations.
