On February 21, the government of the People’s Republic of China published what it called the “concept paper” for its much-ballyhooed (by PRC officials) Global Security Initiative.
Publication of this concept paper is part of Beijing’s campaign, dating back to the early 2000s, to assuage foreign fears about China becoming a great power. It also serves as a demonstration to the Chinese people that under the Xi Jinping-led Communist Party government, China’s international importance and prestige are rising as foreigners increasingly recognize the superiority of Chinese civilization.
The Global Security Initiative, the concept paper explains, “aims to eliminate the root causes of international conflicts” and bring about “durable peace and development in the world.” The Initiative illustrates Beijing’s ambition for global leadership, but it also unintentionally highlights a weakness that hinders the fulfillment of that ambition.
China’s official vision for future foreign relations includes strong support for the United Nations, which the concept paper calls the “core” of “the international system.”
This reflects Beijing’s assessment that although the UN does not always conform to Chinese wishes, it is increasingly useful as a vehicle for promoting China’s agenda and restraining America’s. A major reason is that China is quietly building influence in the United Nations by placing PRC nationals in leadership positions over UN agencies.
The concept paper demonstrates China’s credentials for global leadership by taking its readers on a tour through the developing world. The text asserts Beijing’s desire for peace, development and justice in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Central Asia and the Pacific.
For each region, the concept paper touts leading roles for international organizations that either are Chinese-led or exclude US influence, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the China-Horn of Africa Peace, Governance and Development Conference, and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
China gaining more influence than the United States in the UN and the Third World may worry only Americans. But it gets worse. The concept paper is full of principles that China calls on other governments to uphold – but that China itself violates.
The concept paper repeats a long-standing Chinese position that “sanctions are no fundamental solution to disputes,” but later adds more nuance by phrasing the problem as “abusing unilateral sanctions.” Theoretically, then, there’s good sanctioning and there’s bad sanctioning.
In practice, China opposes US government sanctions but frequently imposes its own “unilateral” sanctions to punish other countries for dissenting from Beijing’s positions on certain sensitive political issues.
The paper expresses PRC support for the World Health Organization (WHO). This apparent interest in promoting global health, however, is problematic. Beijing has refused to be fully transparent about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic out of fear of embarrassing the PRC government.
For the same reason, Beijing pressured neighboring countries not to ban travelers from China in the first few weeks of the pandemic when China was the epicenter. Saving face for the party took precedence over the well-being of foreign populations.
Professing support for the WHO is relatively easy for China. Beijing exercised undue control over the WHO during the Covid-19 pandemic. The WHO also bars Taiwan, at Beijing’s insistence – another way the party prioritizes its political agenda over global health.
The concept paper says China will “safeguard” global food security. Meanwhile, however, huge Chinese fishing fleets are depleting the world’s fisheries, often through illegal and unreported fishing – of which China is the world’s largest perpetrator.
The paper promises China will “support cooperation among countries in addressing climate change.” In reality, PRC officials have repeatedly held cooperation with the USA on climate change hostage to Washington making concessions in US-China bilateral disputes.
China pledges “sincere cooperation” in fighting drug trafficking. Americans will immediately point out that China is the main supplier to the United States of fentanyl-related substances. Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 49.
US officials report that, contrary to the concept paper’s verbiage, the PRC government is largely uncooperative with American attempts to cut off shipments of fentanyl precursor chemicals out of China.
The concept paper rejects “the weaponization of, and arms race in, outer space.” But China itself stands accused of weaponizing space. The People’s Liberation Army runs China’s space program.
It was China that carried out the most spectacular space war exercise in history. As a trial run of its capability to destroy enemy satellites, the PRC infamously blew up one of its own satellites with a ground-launched missile in 2007, creating a dangerous debris cloud that remains a hazard to other countries’ space-based assets. Beijing admitted to the act only after several days of international outcry.
The paper says China recognizes “sovereign equality and non-interference” as the “most fundamental norms governing contemporary international relations.” Equality, it explains, means “all countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal members of the international community.”
The wording triggers memories of then-foreign minister Yang Jiechi scolding a group of Southeast Asian officials in 2010. In a moment of unguarded candor, Yang told them that “China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that is just a fact.” He didn’t mean they were all equal.
Xi says China will never “bully smaller countries,” but foreign governments that beg to differ comprise a long list that includes Lithuania, the Philippines, Norway, Palau, Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia, South Korea, Nepal, Japan and India.
The emphasis on “non-interference” reflects the PRC government’s disdain for foreign criticism of political repression in China and fear of subversion by oft-cited “hostile foreign forces.” Beijing itself, however, is heavily engaged in various efforts to influence politics and public opinion in foreign countries toward alignment with Beijing’s agenda.
The concept paper commits to “taking the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously.” This notion expresses an important national interest shared by all three members of the China Bloc, the other two of which are China’s sole formal ally North Korea and China’s main quasi-ally Russia.
In 2010, China’s official media objected to the reported possibility that a US aircraft carrier might participate in a US-ROK naval exercise in the Yellow Sea, because it would offend Chinese sensibilities – even though the exercise was a response to two lethal incidents carried out by North Korea.
When the South Korean government decided to deploy an anti-missile defense system to address the threat posed by North Korea’s development of nuclear-capable missiles, Beijing tried to veto the decision, saying the system’s radar undermined China’s security.
In its diplomatic defense of North Korea during the nuclear weapons crisis Beijing has consistently argued that, before demanding that the North Koreans dismantle their nuclear weapons and missile programs, Washington has the responsibility to make concessions that will make Pyongyang feel secure – because Pyongyang feels threatened by the United States.
The principle of unrequited security concerns is also central to the PRC/Russian narrative of the Ukraine war, which blames the conflict on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization threatening Russia by expanding its membership eastward.
Beijing is far less sensitive, however, to the security concerns of neighbors alarmed by PRC military activity.
As an example, when six nuclear-capable PLA Air Force bomber aircraft flew between Japan’s Miyako and Okinawa islands in 2017, a PRC Ministry of Defense spokesman said Japan should “get used it” and not “overact and make a great fuss about it.”
The Chinese government claims to see nothing problematic about building artificial island bases supplied with fighter aircraft, anti-ship missiles, anti-aircraft missiles and laser cannon in an international waterway – at a time when China was a signatory to an international agreement that required a commitment to “building trust and confidence” and refraining from “activities that would complicate or escalate disputes.”
Despite manifest interest in imposing control over territory on the Sino-Indian border, in the South China Sea, in the East China Sea, in the Yellow Sea and across the Taiwan Strait, Beijing seems to believe its own propaganda that everything China does is defensive and “What is other people’s [territory], we do not want at all.”
Probably because it is mostly focused on impressing its domestic audience, the Chinese government seems unaware or unconcerned that more skeptical foreign audiences see a blatant gap between PRC words and deeds. The concept paper is another manifestation of this phenomenon.
As the Chinese government persists in making demonstrably false statements, PRC claims regarding crucially important issues – such as the mantra, “China will never seek hegemony or engage in expansionism” – inevitably lose their credibility.
The ultimate cost is greater resistance to PRC global leadership.
Denny Roy is a senior fellow at the East-West Center, Honolulu.