The New World Order – How Xi Jinping Coldly Used Putin’s Weakness to Hold an Anti-Summit with the G7

While representatives of major democracies met in Hiroshima, Japan, to discuss pressing global issues, Chinese leader Xi Jinping simultaneously summoned Central Asian leaders for their own summit. Beijing wants to expand its influence in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. These countries were part of Moscow’s sphere of influence during the Cold War. But now they are increasingly drawn into Beijing’s orbit.

The Central Asia summit, as the gathering is called, is another cornerstone of Xi’s new world order, designed to replace the one represented by the G-7. An authoritarian, illiberal, surveillance state led by Beijing will emerge based on freedom, democracy, and partnership.

Kazakhstan, in particular, plays an important role in Beijing’s logic. That was the start of the “New Silk Road” in 2013, Xi Jinping’s trillion-dollar project that now allows him to politically manipulate more than 140 countries around the world by investing in infrastructure if he chooses.

Xi Jinping ruthlessly exploits Putin’s weaknesses

Central Asia isn’t just ecstatic about China’s growing influence. On top of that, there are fears that Beijing’s grip on Central Asia could stoke Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin’s desire to bring the world region back into Russia’s sphere of influence. However, China currently requires gas supplies from Central Asia, especially Kazakhstan. For Central Asian countries, the People’s Republic of China is the most important trading partner. Last year alone, transaction volume hit a record high of $71 billion and is on the rise.

Strategists in Beijing know that Russia is currently preoccupied with the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine and lacks the resources to influence developments in Central Asia. Xi Jinping has emerged on the world stage as Vladimir Putin’s best friend, ruthlessly exploiting his vulnerability. Russia is high on the G7 agenda. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will speak at the meeting. His speech is not expected to be addressed too much to representatives of the G7, but to those of countries such as Brazil, India and Indonesia, which have grown in importance and were invited to the summit. In the past, they did not explicitly side with the West and supported sanctions against Russia.

The global south is skeptical of the United States

This is driven not so much by sympathy for the Kremlin or Beijing’s dictatorship as by rejection of the United States. When Washington tries to sell its own interests as those of the liberal democratic world, few in the global South believe it. The US supplies arms to 35 of the 50 least free states in the world. Therefore, the real interest in respecting human rights does not come from the leaders of the free world.

What’s more, countries such as Japan or Germany that have traditionally held different positions on war and arms deliveries seek dialogue with political representatives in India, Indonesia and Brazil to convince them of their views.

The Chinese know like never before that their country is not welcome

Beijing’s main argument for its new world order is the huge market China can offer. No country can really escape this pull. Beijing does not confuse appeal to its market with an expression of sympathy. The Communist Party leadership knows that Xi Jinping has made China less popular globally than ever. Xi Jinping is not interested in partnerships or even friendships. For him, power is everything. In combating this attitude, the free world has the potential to expand its existing institutions and bring countries such as India, Indonesia, and Brazil as equals in the conversation about the world’s future.

No future will work without Brazil, Indonesia and India

Without these countries, the future is politically and economically unworkable anyway. Their society is young, while society in the free world (except the US) is aging rapidly. Economically, the G7 countries are no longer the leaders either. While they still generated about 70 percent of global economic output in the late 1980s, they now account for only about 40 percent.

Finally, the free world has a better offer

Xi Jinping may be committed to a new world order, but in the end, at least in theory, the free world made a better deal. In practice, however, Xi Jinping has created a web of dependencies and military threats around the world that can only be resolved through sustained, consistent reform of the existing order bound by the principles of freedom and human rights. The G7 summit in Japan could start here.