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 ...
Category: Books
The Case for More U.S. Soft Power to Counter China in the Global South
China is one of the very few truly bipartisan issues in Washington today where there is near unanimous consensus that the U.S. must work to counter Beijing's growing influence around the world, especially in developing countries.
What China’s Past Tells Us About the Future of its Foreign Policy in Asia
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim both wrapped up state visits to China last week and their discussions with President Xi Jinping revealed some fascinating linkages between contemporary Chinese foreign policy objectives and Beijing's historical ...
Latin America Was Once an Afterthought for China… Not Anymore
In just the past twenty years, China's trade with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean surged 26-fold to almost half-a-trillion dollars. The region is also now a major destination for Chinese foreign investment and becoming a critically important new front ...
China, Latin America, and the Rise of a New Non-Aligned Movement
During the first Cold War, a large group of developing countries sought to distance themselves from the ideological battle between the United States and the Soviet Union to create a Non-Aligned Movement. Today, three decades ...
Can China’s Surveillance State Governance Model Be Exported Abroad?
China has built the world's largest and most intrusive surveillance system to monitor the behavior of its people. Millions of cameras, vast databases, and sophisticated online filters work together to form a seemingly omnipresent matrix that overwatches every aspect of daily ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Unpacking Han Zheng’s Messaging to the Global South at the UN General Assembly
Africa in the New Era of U.S.-China Great Power Competition
Chinese President Xi Jinping is widely expected to soon re-emerge on the global stage after a nearly three-year absence. Where is still unknown, but when it does happen it's going to create a much tenser, more confrontational atmosphere at upcoming summits ...
A Discussion With Elizabeth Economy About the World According to China
Acclaimed China scholar Elizabeth Economy join Eric & Cobus this week to discuss her new book for 2022 "The World According to China." It's important to note the interview with Elizabeth was recorded before Russia's invasion of ...
China, Africa, and a New Alternative International Order
There's an emerging consensus among many leading international relations scholars that Russia's invasion of Ukraine marked the official end of the post-Cold War era and the beginning of, well... actually... no one's actually sure what's coming next but whatever it is ...
Why Pragmatism, Not Ideology Drives Chinese Economic Engagement in Africa
In these contentious times, China is often accused of exporting its statist economic model to Africa and other developing regions as part of a broader ideological agenda to create a new Sinocentric international order. But Tsinghua University Professor Tang Xiaoyang argues
Why Perceptions of China Vary So Much Depending on Where You Live
Public perceptions of China vary markedly depending on where you live in the world. In wealthy advanced economies in the Global North, negative sentiment towards China is now at all-time highs and ...