Washington (AP) – just a month after the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, proposed his “global governance initiative,” Beijing made clear his intention in most global forums, which he should, and is qualified to help shape the world order, even when the United States leans more inside Donald Trump.
In a speech apparently full of jargon pronounced to the UN General Assembly on Friday, Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang told the audience that “a China that takes into account the greatest good of humanity and is ready to assume responsibilities will bring more positive energy to the world.” His words seized the retirement of the US president of international organizations and in his apparent disdain for the United Nations.
Li never mentioned the United States by name. But in not so subtle blows of the recent actions of the United States, he promoted the credentials of his country: reduce tariffs to promote the global economy, promising to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change and commit to safeguard the United Nations authority.
It represents a change in the approach of global affairs that, according to experts, reflects a China that is seen in the ascent.
“Li’s speech confirms that China’s foreign policy position today is firmly anchored in the ambition to convert a western dominant world order that is much more conducive to Chinese interests, values ​​and leadership,” said Olivia Cheung, a politics professor at King’s College London. “China’s foreign policy today is noticeably safer, strategic and coherent than it was in 2017, where Beijing’s presentation of the Global Governance Reform lacked content.”
The speech has emerged in the midst of the growing concerns in Washington that China, the second largest economy in the world, could try to disapprove of the United States as the world leader, although Beijing has repeatedly assured Washington who has no intention of challenging or replacing the United States, Xi has said that Beijing should enjoy a global saying of its economic power and its global stature.
Li says China has the answer
Li opened his speech evoking the history of the United Nations and accrediting him for peace and prosperity in general in the next eight decades. Then, he lamented in the “chaos” faced by the world today.
“The world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation,” Li said, leveling his criticism for “unilateralism and mentality of the cold war” and interruptions repeated to the international system.
“How could we, when we face unscrupulous acts of hegemonism and bullying, remain silent and submissive for fear of being able?” The Chinese prime minister asked. The terms “unilateralism”, “mentality of the cold war”, “hegemonism” and “intimidation” are generally associated with the United States in Beijing diplomatic conversations.
Then, the Chinese prime minister portrayed China as a desirable response to such problems: a United Nations founding member that in recent years has shared the “wisdom and solution of China to navigate global transformations and overcome pressing challenges.”
The Global Governance Initiative, as proposed by XI at the beginning of September, “points out the correct address and provides an important way to build a more just and equitable global governance system,” Li said.
China’s foreign policy changes under XI
The rethinking is, at some levels, fundamental.
In a podcast broadcast on September 26, Cheung told the National Committee on Relations with the United States-China that Beijing’s strategic thinking has changed under Xi, since maintaining good ties with the United States and other Western nations for China’s economic growth until “remodeling the international system so that the rest of the world respects and accepts China’s interest in the way he defines it.”
She said Beijing has seen the global governance system as “dominated by Western powers, especially the United States” and serving their interests in a way that is “often unfair or not representative.”
What is more interested in Beijing, said Cheung, is “to change global governance in a way that puts the United Nations center and the center of the nations”, where China can have “much more participation and influences and leverage of how it works.”
Li’s speech on Friday transmits the impression that XI’s proposal of “forging the common destiny for humanity” is not only an aspiration but “political actions that are noble and urgent, with which China has a strong technical competence to lead,” Cheung told The Associated Press.
As the Trump administration imposes pronounced tariffs, it threatens territorial annexations and persecutes multilateral institutions, “China seeks to present themselves as a key defender of a postwar order in whose viability, the United States, the United States seems to be losing confidence,” said Ali Wyne, a research and defense advisor of the United States in the international crisis group.
But China does not seem to have the ability or desire to offer a wholesale alternative, Wyne said. Instead, he said, China seems interested in deepening its influences in certain areas and trying to legitimize its long statement that new norms are needed to reflect emerging geopolitical trends.
Gap in rhetoric and reality
The Gulf between Beijing’s words and his actions is another question. With regard to the Chinese government, its action often does not align with its word, said Craig Singleton, senior director of China’s program at the Foundation of Tank Tank for Defense of Democracies based in Washington.
“The comments of Prime Minister Li greatly supported the multilateral language, but Beijing’s history tells a different story,” Singleton said. “China defends sovereignty at the UN while erosion systematically in practice, from Hong Kong to the southern China Sea.”
He added: “Li asks for ‘cooperation’ and ‘Opening’ sound constructive, but are designed to contain pressure on the China economy and technology sector.”
A day before, Li held a meeting with American businessmen and academics in New York. He assured the group that China “would continuously expand access to the market and increase imports” and provide foreign companies “the certainty they need to operate and develop in China,” according to a declaration of the Chinese government.
The two countries are locked in a commercial dispute, and XI and Trump are scheduled to meet outside the summit of the Economic Cooperation Group of Asia Pacific of 21 economies, which will be held at the end of October in South Korea, to help recalibrate bilateral relations.
The Chinese prime minister said that the two countries “could and should” become partners and friends, and repeated an XI line: “The Pacific Ocean is vast enough to accommodate China and the United States, as well as other countries.”
(Tagstotranslate) Li Qiang
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