This article aims to identify some lessons from China' s neighboring diplomacy in the two years prior to the 18th National Congress of the CPC(November 8-14,2012). Angered by the legally absurd and politically provocative Doctrine of Seiji Maehara (former Japanese foreign minister,September 2010-March 2011,under the Naoto Kan cabinet of the Japanese Democratic Party),who flatly denied any territorial dispute with China,sentiments of "triumphalism" burst out among the Chinese people,especially the military,some government ministries,the major state-owned companies,and social media.This put heavy pressure on China's neighboring diplomacy,and doubts even appeared about the late leader Deng Xiaoping's policy of "shelving disputes for common development" amid the atmosphere of unilateral oil/gas explorations by other countries regardless of repeated protests from China.Even so,in September 2011,the Chinese government reiterated Deng's principle in the official White Paper entitled "China's Peaceful Development".The following month saw the visit to China of the General Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party,and the bilateral agreement over restraining open disputes,which evidently relaxed tensions between the two sides.Roughly two months later,then Vice President Xi Jinping paid a reciprocal visit to Hanoi,a trip that cemented the just-obtained relaxation in state relations.