Ming empire diplomatic expeditions as an example of economic diplomacy and geoeconomics initiatives of the People’s Republic of China

The historical hypostasis of the modern geoeconomic strategy of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is considered, using the example of the diplomatic expeditions of the 15th century by the Chinese travelers Zheng He, Yishiha, and Cheng Cheng in the prism of a political economic and historical materialist approach. The subject of the article is the historical process of Ming China spreading its influence throughout diplomatic missions and expeditions, as well as the modern model of economic diplomacy and geoeconomic strategy of the PRC. The aim is to conduct a comparative study of the geography and methods of influence of emissaries and ambassadors of Ming China with modern geoeconomic initiatives of the PRC in the international division of labor and the world market. The objectives of the work are to determine the geography of historical interests of the Chinese economy and state apparatus; to formulate the principles and features of conducting foreign economic policy of Ming and modern China; to deduce the objective reasons for the historical process and modern initiatives of China. The following results were obtained in the course of the study: the basis of the geoeconomic strategy of the modern PRC, the instruments of economic diplomacy and soft power of China in relations with its neighbors determined; the principles and mechanisms of the prerequisites for the emergence of modern Chinese initiatives on the world stage analyzed; the objective indicators of China's foreign trade cooperation with countries located in geographical proximity to China and the routes of the above-mentioned expeditions considered. Conclusions: the results obtained made it possible to objectively consider the origins of the geoeconomic initiatives of the modern PRC as a synergy of current institutional instruments of influence, objective trade and economic interests and bourgeois-based "national mythology".