The current article enquires why the People’s Republic of China (PRC) did not break diplomatic ties with Pinochet’s regime following the Soviet Union. On a more general level, it portends which aspects of such event represent a fundamental change on the PRC’s overall foreign policy. The research argues that China maintained and subsequently boosted its engagements with the Chilean military regime for two structural reasons: the politico-diplomatic project, and the economic project. It proposes an analysis of China’s foreign policy that links the domestic political configuration with the challenge of global hegemony. Finally, the article concludes that China’s relationship with Pinochet’s regime was double-faced: on the one side, it must advance its politico-diplomatic project, relying on its friendship with ThirdWorld countries; and on the other, China took interest on the dictatorship’s economic agenda, which seemed to be successful in handling financial liberalisation without democratisation.