China’s Growing Influence On The World By Vedant Sanodiya
By: Vedant Sanodiya
Tags: International Relations, Influence, International Business, China, Economy

Until around a decade ago, China presented a modest face to the world. The official government slogan was: “Hide your light and bide your time”. Ministers insisted that China was still a developing country with a lot to learn from the West.

Then Xi Jinping came to power. He became secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, and President the following year. He introduced a new tone. The old modesty faded, and there was a different slogan: “Strive for achievement”. In some ways, China is still a developing country, with 250 million people below the poverty line. Yet it is already the world’s second-biggest economy and is on course to overtake the US over the next decade or so. China’s influence in the world is becoming more and more obvious, at a time when America’s authority has visibly declined.

We can see the clear signs of China’s growing political strength and involvement right across the world, from Greenland and the Caribbean to Peru and Argentina, and from South Africa and Zimbabwe to Pakistan and Mongolia. On a strategic level, China continues to advocate for a multipolar world where it will be second to none. BRICS, the G-20, G-77, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and regional trade arrangements provide the country with platforms to pursue this agenda. China’s resurgence undermines traditional power structures embedded in leading global governance institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Beijing lobbies for reforms to accord more space for emerging powers like itself to have a greater say in these longstanding financial pillars.

But while it pushes for reforms, it does not intend to unsettle the system. In fact, it has even increased support for multilateralism and globalization. China has become the largest contributor of peacekeepers among the five permanent United Nations Security Council members and has become the UN’s second-largest funder. China is also an active participant in the dispute settlement mechanism of the World Trade Organization and, despite issues, has been known to comply even with unfavorable verdicts. This said the pronounced role of the state in China’s economy and trade malpractices are bound to sustain frictions with key trade partners. Notwithstanding its support for multipolar, China is already taking the lead in what it sees as a period of strategic opportunity. Emboldened by its economic weight and increasing clout, Beijing already took the bold step of offering its vision for the world — a “community of shared future for mankind.” While the concept remains nebulous, its emphasis on respect for sovereignty, non-interference, and peaceful resolution of disputes make it appear less intrusive, but also more unlikely to call out domestic rights abuses by countries bandwagon with it.

Chinese security forces’ recent remarkable escalation of tensions along disputed boundaries with India, Japan, Taiwan, and Southeast Asian countries is the latest manifestation of actions China takes to exert and advance influence in international affairs. The tool kit used by strongman ruler Xi Jinping goes well beyond conventional methods of building and exerting foreign influence. Those conventional methods involve building closer political, economic, and security relations with other countries and multilateral groups. They provide the main metrics used in existing foreign assessments of Chinese foreign policy influence.

However, recent reports by various foreign specialists and media show existing foreign assessments are insufficient in determining the full extent of China’s actual influence. Those investigations highlight unconventional Chinese government actions and levers of influence abroad that were heretofore disguised, hidden, denied, or otherwise neglected or unappreciated in foreign assessments of China’s foreign relations. If successfully employed, those unconventional actions and levers of influence foreshadow major changes in the world order averse to preserving the international status quo.

In pursuit of their strategic goals, the Chinese regimes have employed their political warfare strategies, operational concepts, and formidable arsenals in many ways in recent years. The diversity of their operations and the skill in which a wide range of instruments have been employed have been impressive. To illustrate the diverse nature of these operations, some of their successes and failures, and the effectiveness of local and broader Western countermeasures as this research shows in-depth information on the growing influence of China in the world.