With the implementation of the US "pivot to Asia" strategy and increasing territorial disputes between China and surrounding countries, many nations have more doubts and worries toward China. China has many strategic partners, but China has also suffered losses because of its strategic partners. Maybe it is time to rethink and reexamine the country's strategic partnerships.

Since 1990s when China officially began to build strategic partnerships, it has established various forms of strategic partnership with most of the major powers in the world. Especially in recent years, the phrase "strategic partnership" has been widely used to describe the diplomatic relationships between China and specific countries.

This will certainly help China to deepen diplomatic relations with other countries and create a better prospective for inter-state interactions. However, the trend of generalization of this phrase may dilute the concentrations of strategic partnership. China has formed an extensive strategic partnership network, but only a few within it are real "strategic partners." This diplomatic pattern may finally damage China's foreign strategy and its national interests.

Given this situation, China should work on an intensive network of strategic partnerships. China should not easily expand new strategic partnerships but focus more on deepening links and widening cooperation with current strategic partners. China should make full use of the functions that strategic partnerships contain such as coordination of interests and conflict resolution to build an effective strategic partnership network, creating favorable external environment for its peaceful development and to undertake global responsibilities.

To build an intensive network of strategic partnerships, China should have strict standards in selecting its strategic partners. Take the EU for example. The EU has only recognized nine countries as strategic partners: China, the US, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Russia, India, South Africa and Mexico. These countries are either the EU's traditional partners or influential emerging powers.

According to the available studies, under most conditions, there are five standards for strategic partners: common interests, common values, influences, leverage and strengths. Currently, China puts too much emphasis on common interests when selecting strategic partners. This is the main obstacle to build an intensive network of strategic partnerships.

Common interests are the basic conditions of the existence of strategic partnership. However, too much emphasis on such interests will lead to the ignorance of other factors, and will particularly lead to ignorance of the importance of common values in maintaining the relationship.

Partnership is a word which has cultural significance. Maintaining such relationships should be based on common values. Without common values, strategic partnerships which are only based on the interests will lead to utilitarian interactions. Once the interests change, this kind of strategic partnership will be very fragile.

Besides, too many strategic partners will weaken partners' leverage and influence. If we divide partnerships into two kinds: strong relationship and weak relationship, we will find that weak relationships can help get information and resources while strong relationships will mean we get too much overlapped information.

Take Latin America, where China has established strategic partnerships with many counties such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Venezuela. Too many strategic partners are concentrated in one area. This limits China's space to exert influence in this area. In fact, based on national interests, making keen differentiations in dealing with inter-state relations will help China to exert its influence more effectively.

Moreover, establishing, maintaining and changing strategic partnerships should also take the changes in the international structure and external environment into account. China should regularly evaluate its strategic partners according to the requirements of its national interests and maintain an intensive network of strategic partnerships.

The author is scholar at chair of international politics in Department of Politics and Management at University of Konstanz, Germany. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn