(ORDO NEWS) — China has made its dissatisfaction with Joe Biden clearer than ever. As soon as Biden left for Asia, Beijing began promoting its Global Security Initiative (GSI). China proposes an alternative security order, writes The Financial Times.
Beijing calls on countries to join the Global Security Initiative, in which states will “respect each other’s sovereignty.”
China has made its dissatisfaction with Joe Biden clearer than ever. While the American president was meeting with the leaders of the Quad (quadrilateral security dialogue) partner countries in Tokyo, Russian and Chinese nuclear bombers were flying over the Sea of Japan.
But China is also using less crude tactics to counter the US, such as diplomatic efforts. As soon as Biden left for Asia, Beijing began promoting its Global Security Initiative (GSI). China proposes an alternative security order.
The initiative was introduced by President Xi Jinping in April. It is based on a number of principles, including such as non-intervention and rejection of US “hegemony”.
Now Beijing is trying to lure other countries to itself. On May 19, in a video message to the foreign ministers of the BRICS group of large emerging economies, the Chinese president listed the many benefits of the GSI project.
Xi urged other BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa) to “strengthen mutual political trust and security cooperation, (…) take into account each other’s core interests and concerns, respect each other’s sovereignty, security and development interests, counteract hegemony and power politics, abandon the Cold War and bloc mentality, and work together to build a global community to ensure everyone is safe.”
In the following days, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi issued statements from Uruguay, Nicaragua, Cuba and Pakistan in support of the GSI initiative. Indonesia and Syria also supported it.
With the new program, Beijing is desperately trying to counter US-led blocs. According to the Chinese authorities, it is they who are responsible for the conflicts and tensions in the world.
Tian Wenlin, professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing, believes that the Western world order is “barbaric and bloody” and that the US is dragging other countries into wars.
“Countries (…) urgently need a new paradigm of global security based on equality and mutual trust in the face of rapid changes in the international arena,” he recently wrote in an op-ed. The expert says that “The Global Security Initiative is designed to protect the security interests of a wide range of people around the world.”
Beijing’s focus on security means that the Chinese authorities have moved away from the traditional approach to foreign relations.
“Earlier, when Chinese representatives spoke about resolving conflicts and solving problems in the field of security in the world, development was at the forefront. As a solution, it was proposed to ensure the well-being of problem regions. Now the priorities have changed,” said Bates Gill, Professor Chair of Security Studies in the Asia-Pacific Region, Macquarie University.
Security plays a special role in the Pacific region, where China is rapidly expanding its influence at the expense of the Western powers that dominated there.
Chinese Minister Wang will visit eight islands in the Pacific in the coming weeks. During the visit, he will present an agreement on cooperation in various fields, from customs to fisheries. But the first of the eight articles of the draft agreement is related to security, including cooperation in the field of law and order and cybersecurity.
Taylor Fravel, head of the MIT security research program, says China is using the initiative to delegitimize the US’s global role.
“I think that they will focus mainly on developing countries,” the expert said. “Obviously, this is China’s priority, given that most of Europe has moved away from it.”
Chinese diplomats have promoted the GSI initiative in developing countries such as India, the Philippines, Uganda, Somalia and Kenya. For promotion, articles were used in local media and on the websites of Chinese embassies.
Security experts say the development of the GSI began before the conflict in Ukraine. “This is the next step in Xi’s efforts to rid the global security order of Cold War thinking. Xi has been doing this since 2014,” said a Chinese researcher advising the government.
This need became stronger after Russia launched a special operation in Ukraine. This made the task more difficult. “Since the conflict began in Ukraine, China has made some efforts to protect Russia’s “legitimate security interests,” said Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie Center at Tsinghua University in Beijing. According to the expert , “The Global Security Initiative also borrows from Russia the concept of “indivisible security”.
China also needs the initiative in order to eliminate the consequences of supporting Russia. “The GSI also serves to correct China’s response to what is happening in Ukraine, as Beijing’s response has led states to question China’s commitment to multilateralism and international order,” said Courtney Fung, assistant professor at Macquarie University.
Analysts believed that Beijing would eventually institutionalize the program, as has already happened with the Belt and Road Initiative. But the process can take years. The One Belt, One Road program was announced in 2013, but many countries began to join it only in 2016.
“They want to organize into a big ‘third camp’ those countries that don’t want to take sides in what they see as a polarized world,” said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the think tank. Stimson.
“But it will be impossible to implement such a large-scale and uncertain strategy at the global level,” the expert believes.
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