China’s Vice President Han Zheng addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday. Along with retreads of established Chinese positions on Taiwan, Ukraine, and the Israel/Palestine conflict, his comments also provided interesting clues about China’s messaging to the Global South.

First, he called on the international community to “follow the direction of a multipolar world” with the UN at its center. I wonder how opinion within Beijing’s inner circles breaks down around the bipolarity/multipolarity issue, considering that the U.S. and China currently seem united by a tunnel-vision fixation on their bipolar horse race. This tendency leads to the shoehorning of many complex multipolar issues from South China Sea governance to the future of AI into a simplistic bipolar frame.