The Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi Sounded an Awful Lot Like a China-Africa Summit

China’s emergence as a major global power over the past quarter-century has not been accompanied by the rise of a Sinocentric worldview. Unlike the U.S. or Europeans in previous eras, where countries in those regions were able to position themselves at the apex of global power for others to emulate, the same cannot be said for China in the early 21st century.

There’s no country that aspires to be like China or to adopt the Chinese political system. Sure, a lot of countries want to emulate China’s economic success and autocrats may borrow some of Beijing’s authoritarian tactics, but there’s no indication that any kind of Sinocentrism is taking root.