At the end of September, for the first time, the Chinese Government published a comprehensive account of the “Community of Common Destiny for Mankind”, which its leadership in the Communist Party has been developing over the past four decades – in parallel with its inexorable economic rise to become the second largest economy in the world. While it is replete with virtue-signalling phrases, it offers an insight into Beijing’s strategic intentions on a wide range of global issues such as trade, climate change, cyber operations, and security cooperation. It is important that we understand “where the Chinese are coming from” in their own words since we will be making choices in a fast-polarising word between the US and China.
Basically, China is seeking to change the global environment and institutions so that it can play a greater role under new legitimising rules of the game. The present environment and institutions such as the UN, IMF, World Bank, WTO, etc, were formed after WWII when the US had emerged as the dominant power – the “hegemon” according to the Chinese – a state whose predominance depends on coercive power. The “universal values” enshrined in these institutions, according to the Chinese, are “imperialistic impositions of Western concepts on other civilisations”. The same claim is made on the political institutions and development models pioneered by the West and which are now seen as normative in international society. They feel that while some of these ideas and institutions are useful advances suitable for all peoples; others are simply relics that would have long disappeared were they not upheld by the “illegitimate American hegemony”.
In terms of political institutions, the Chinese also focus on “democracy” for all countries – but with a Chinese twist. In a 2015 speech to the United Nations, President Xi declared, “Consultation is an important form of democracy, and it should also become an important means of exercising international governance.” So, the Chinese see “consultative democracy” as a fundamental value, both domestically and internationally. In the latter, this means China insists that in international institutions all nations should have an equal vote – which would effectively undermine America’s preeminent role in the UN and IMF, etc, and buttress China’s as it uses its financial largess to court votes.
But when we look at Chinese domestic democracy, we can observe the central contradiction in their high-sounding articulation. As one analyst pointed out: “Chinese official media disparage Western democratic regimes as chaotic, confrontational, competitive, inefficient, and oligarchic. They assert that China has developed a more enlightened form of democracy in its “new type of party system”. In this system, the Communist Party is the sole political authority, but minority parties and non-affiliated groups participate in parts of the decision-making process as outside consultants via the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. They argue that other features of China’s political system, such as people’s congresses and consensus-building “inner-party democracy,” purportedly make China’s “democracy” more effective than Western electoral democracy. There is, however, a clear contradiction between China’s articulation of “democracy” in international relations, which argues that all countries are equal regardless of size or political regime, and its approach in domestic politics, where a single party rules, minority parties serve as outside consultants, and dissenting voices are silenced.” If the world were reorganised along its declared vision, notwithstanding its protestations, would China not also become first among “equals” internationally.
In the latter arena, the Chinese see bilateral trade becoming the central organising principle of the new order replacing the defensive blocs and security treaties that they claim make American hegemony possible. The Belt and Road Initiative is one such organising principle that has been executed over the past decade and has now spread globally away from the initial Euro-Asian Silk Road that inspired the concept. Even small nations in the Caribbean – including Guyana in South America – are now a part of this web. China is establishing itself as the centre hub of this global community, and we can expect new international institutions will be founded and existing ones altered in other facets of human endeavour.
