China is about to dominate the world stage

In October 2017, Chinese leader Xi Jinping delivered an hour-long speech at the Communist Party Congress in which he made an important prediction: China will be closer to the center of the world stage.

Today, China is close to dominating the world stage.

In recent global affairs, the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan, the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, the White House’s “quartet” summit, and the almost simultaneous release of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Canada and two Canadians in China have all seen China’s deep participation in China. Its name is not mentioned.

When the United States withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, who did the Taliban think might be their supporters? Why China, of course.

Taliban spokesman Sohail Shahin praised China as a great neighbor of Afghanistan. The South China Morning Post quoted Shaheen as saying that the Taliban are willing to exchange views with China on mutual relations, establishing regional peace, and assisting in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.

On September 15, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States announced an agreement under which Australia will purchase nuclear-powered submarines. The joint statement did not mention any other countries, but there is an assumption that it aims to counter China’s growing influence, and Beijing apparently agrees with this assumption.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian condemned the agreement. He said that, among other things, regional mechanisms should not target third parties.

His boss and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi coined the term Anglo-Saxon Group to describe these three countries.

Since China proposed an independent investigation into the origin of the COVID-19 virus, Australia has been China’s target. China accounts for 40% of Australia’s exports, so Canberra is vulnerable to economic pressure.

China does not seem to understand that Okus and other organizations such as the Group of Four are a reaction to its rising military power and aggressive diplomacy. Instead, it portrays itself as a victim.

Australia, Japan, India and the United States held a summit in Washington more than a week after the Aukus agreement was reached.

Since 2007, these countries have been discussing intermittently at all levels. What brings them together are concerns about what China is doing and what it might do in the future.

After the White House summit on September 24, a joint statement was issued, citing the issues discussed, including the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the climate crisis, mapping regional infrastructure needs and regional security, which have become more and more important The more complicated.

China did not appear in the statement. Nevertheless, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hua Chunying condemned the four people for suggesting the so-called rules-based order to China, exaggerating and citing the so-called China threat theory, and creating a wedge between regional countries and China.

The next day, Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who had been detained in Canada awaiting extradition to the United States since December 2018, reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. She admitted to misleading HSBC in the nature of Huawei’s relationship with a company doing business in Iran, and admitted that Huawei’s business transactions violated US sanctions against Tehran. She was subsequently released.

Bangladesh received a warm welcome in China. The official media used her to fan the flames of nationalism, claiming that the Communist Party and the government take care of Chinese citizens who have been bullied overseas.

The “China Daily” editorial stated that it was China’s national strength that shaped this final result. The stronger a country is, the more troubles there will be around it, but only a strong country can allow us to deal with these troubles with dignity.

The Chinese media remained largely silent on the plight of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. They were arrested within a few days of Meng’s detention and imprisoned on charges of espionage. They were widely regarded as hostages, and Meng was released as soon as he returned home.

Chinese officials will not say that the timing is a coincidence. Instead, they hinted at the exchange of prisoners and pointed out that the Presidents of China and the United States discussed the Meng case in a telephone conversation on September 9.

By doing so, China undermined the position of the United States and Canada to operate under legal procedures. In mid-2021, the Pew Research Center reported that China’s image in 17 advanced economies, including Canada, remained generally negative. The failure of China’s soft power is likely to prompt Beijing to focus its attention on the power of the West.

This has been confirmed to some extent by the French military institution IRSEM and the Institute of Strategic Studies of Military Schools. The main finding of a recent study on the operation of China’s influence is that, in the self-defeating Machiavellian turn, China adopted the admonition of the 16th-century political philosophers that it is better to be feared than to be loved.

Frank Ching is an American journalist based in Hong Kong who writes about issues related to China.