China’s Increasing Influence: What This Means for American Security
Authors: Anderson E , Banks H , Brown M , Bonilla J , Chitwood I , Flores D , Facer J , Greig M , Hagaman W , Martinez B , Johnson J , Khan M , Lafreniere L , McNeill A , Morin E , Ramsey C , Sherwood S , Sobot V , Valentine D , Velez I , Young W , Zee L 
Published: March 2024

Purpose: With its growing domestic and international interest, China has solidified itself as a significant player in international relations, shaking up traditional geopolitics through its military and economic expansion and shifting focus in diplomatic relations. Consequently, it is crucial to understand China’s importance and effect on the United States’ own development in order to react to it correctly and efficiently.

Methodology: This paper will detail the military, diplomatic, and economic aspects of the modern rise of China, respectively, including our recommendations for how the United States should respond to these three key areas in its relations with China. To do so, the International Relations Organization at Virginia Tech split into three initiatives, focusing on the three aspects of the modern rise of China as listed above. The Organization then spent several weeks conducting research using open-source intelligence and information from experts on the subject to understand the methods and strategies employed by China to expand its influence and power in other nations. After conducting research, the Organization began discussing the implications that the findings would have on U.S. national security and started synthesizing the research into our paper and recommendations.

Findings: From our research, it is clear that China is seeking to build a strong military presence in Africa to expand their influence and reach in areas outside of Asia. Additionally, their maintenance of diplomacy with Russian and alliance with President Vladimir Putin makes it evident that they are desiring to position themselves as a contrasting force to the United States in terms of global military dominance. China’s goal of reunification with Taiwan furthers this notion, as in doing so they intend to increase its presence in the South Pacific arena. In terms of China’s diplomacy, we find their creation of the BRICS trade agreement to significantly increase their ties with the countries involved. We find China to be progressively focusing on their diplomatic relations with the BRICS countries, which in turn threatens the U.S. diplomatic relations with these countries and undermines their power and strength as a global superpower among the Eastern sphere. Lastly, China’s influence on the BRICS countries has lasting economic repercussions on the U.S. through the creation of BRICS itself, which we find to clearly be done to oppose the U.S.’ G7 trade agreement. We conclude that this, along with their Belt and Road Initiative and new presence in South American trade, is done as a method for China to compete with the trade dominance of the United States and widen the gap between these countries and the U.S. economically.

Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: To combat China’s military involvement in Africa, we recommend for the United States to lean on its international allies to formulate an arms deal with other countries in order to formulate a better long-term arms deal, dismissing possible transactions with China. In terms of dealing with military expansion in the South Pacific, we recommend the U.S. to undertake policies to put an end to China’s maritime power in the Pacific and increase funding for the Air Force and Navy to invest in new technologies to deal with such power. We also recommend for the United States to promote diplomatic cooperation with Brazil, Russia, India, and South America to combat China’s increasing influence with these countries in BRICS. The United States must also focus on better positioning their diplomatic stance to be allied with nations continuing to push for bilateral issues and human rights conferences in Brazil and India, as well as support India in their push for UN Security Council membership. On the economic side, the United States must respond to China’s infrastructure plan for their economy by investing in other forms of development, such as agriculture, medicine, and digital infrastructure. This paper contributed to the theory of International Affairs and U.S.-China relations through analyzing various diplomatic, economic, and militaristic outlooks with the aims of providing a cohesive study on the level of threat towards American security. The theory of International Relations was augmented via the research and delineation of applicable studies and global conflicts. Thorough examination of included sources contributed to this theory and the practice of IR.