At the beginning of 1951there appeared a trend towards the localization ofthe Korean War，and in February the Chinese leadership began to take economic constructionas the ``central task ‘’and proposed starting large-scale economic constructionafter twenty-two months of preparation.In the autumn of 1952，domestic developmentsconvinced the Chinese leaders that the transitional period had come to an end.TheFirst Five-year Plan was instituted in 1953and the whole country was geared tolarge-scale economic construction.With the new developments at home it was imperativeto make adjustments to China‘s foreign policy.
China faced two ma n national security problems ：One was the Korean War ，which not only threatened the security of New China ，but was also a drain on China‘s manpower，materials and finance.The best alternative was therefore to endthe war as soon as possible.The other was the worsening security situation surroundingChina that had resulted mainly from American expansion in Asia and its policy ofcontainment towards China.America began to build up a military encirclement aroundChina during the Korean War ，consisting of military bases ，a stronger militarypresence and military pacts ，and posed a long-term threat to China.The most urgenttask for national security at that time was to improve relations with neighboringcountries.
It was under such conditions that between 1952and 1954China developed itsforeign policy of a united front for peace，and tried to unite as many peace-lovingcountries as possible.The two main objectives of this policy ，"enhancing thetrend towards peace and neutrality，"and "enlarging the zone of peace and neutrality‘’were fulfilled first of all in areas around China.To be precise，the new foreignpolicy was carried out to create a security buffer zone around China .
The policy of a united front for peace brought about obvious changes in NewChina ‘s diplomacy -the signing of a cease-fire agreement in Korea in The summerof 1953，the insistence on ending the Indo-China War by means of peace negotiationsduring the Geneva Conference，and the drive for good neighborly relations withAsian nations after the conclusion of the Geneva Conference -were all directly relatedto this policy.Published historical information and research in this regard arestill not sufficient to fully reveal the shaping process of this policy.However，we can see clearly the following important changes in the thinking of the Chineseleadership.
First and foremost，the basic aim of the new foreign policy was to preserveChina ‘s national security.This was characterized by the creation of a bufferzone between China and the imperialist countries such as the US ，and by the establishmentof a "collective peace’‘and the enlargement of the ``peace area.’‘The enforcementof this policy presupposed good relations with surrounding countries and it wasthus necessary to reevaluate their natures and roles
Secondly，closely related to the policy mentioned above was a deepening ofunderstanding of state diplomacy.As shown by documents now made public ，on 30April 1952Zhou Enlai stated explicitly for the first time that diplomacy "is therelations between states."26This statement was of great significance ，since itmeant that the essential difference between New China ‘s diplomacy and that ofthe Chinese revolutionary movement in terms of their respective relations with foreigncountries was finally acknowledged and revealed .