The Chinese government is ramping up promotion of its Global Security Initiative to key stakeholders in Africa. Last week, the Foreign Ministry organized a briefing seminar on the GSI at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa for senior-level AU and UN officials.
The GSI is one of five new global governance initiatives introduced by Beijing in recent years that are intended to provide an alternative to the Western-led international security architecture.
Wang Lixin, director general of the Department of Security Cooperation at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, linked China’s increasingly prominent role in African security affairs, namely Beijing’s role as the largest contributor of troops to UN Peacekeeping Operations in Africa among the permanent members of the Security Council.
However, according to a Xinhua report, Wang did not provide specifics about how all this fits within the GSI, which is a problem given that many people still don’t quite understand what this new initiative entails.
“Despite the GSI’s potential on the continent, it faces a number of challenges,” said Lungani Hlongwa, editor of The China-Africa Security Radar Substack. “Among them is the lack of a clear operational definition, detailed criteria for participation, or concrete benchmarks for implementation,” he wrote in a new column for his subscribers on Monday.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT? Events like this are central to China’s effort to build support for its new governance initiatives. While they are ambiguous, stakeholders in Africa and other Global South regions have nonetheless expressed strong support for Beijing’s governance models, mostly because they’re inclusive, forward-looking, and seemingly provide an alternative to the Western-led system that a lot of policymakers on the continent feel strongly has not served them well.
