In the past few years, China has exhibited a rising assertiveness in international relations, including trade, although its official grand strategy remains "Peaceful Development." Examples of this contradictory trajectory are China's rare earth elements export restrictions (assertive) and the One Belt, One Road initiative (peaceful). This article seeks to establish, on the one hand, whether or not these examples are conforming to or diverging from "Peaceful Development," and therefore actually a manifestation of the alleged rising assertiveness on China's part, and on the other hand, identify the reason why China is acting ambivalently. To accomplish this, this article gives historical-cultural context to the analyzed cases in order to explain them via an innovative approach using intangible factors rather than the more commonplace materialist explanations. Results of the analysis show that for the understanding of these grand strategy manifestations and their (at times) perceived rising assertiveness and inconsistency, a good grasp of China's historical memory and sense of legitimacy is determining.