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Opinion | China wants its moment on the world stage. Can it convince the US to share?
- China’s determination to share the success of its socio-economic model with the world has made it a threat in the eyes of the US
- Yet with rivalry sliding towards conflict, China must not lose sight of its peaceful aims
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Over the past decade, Xi Jinping has transformed China into a global power. But grave challenges lie ahead and unless the US can be won over, Xi’s quest for “a community of shared future for humankind” may remain elusive.
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With the 20th party congress poised to extend his presidency for an unprecedented third term, Xi’s already considerable impact on China and the world is likely to become even more significant, for better or worse.
In the West, Xi is deemed as part of a rising wave of autocratic rulers threatening the liberal world order. But danger is also lurking within. Across Europe, ultraconservative and far-right regimes are being elected into office. In the US, the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol is fuelling long-standing scepticism: is liberal democracy really the “end of history”?
More than any entity, the Communist Party of China is the most vocal defender of the world view that there are multiple pathways to achieving good governance. And China’s remarkable transformation into an economic powerhouse, according to Beijing, is evidence that “socialism with Chinese characteristics” is one such pathway.
For Xi, moreover, China’s economic success can be a model for the developing world. Thus, in a departure from Deng Xiaoping’s maxim to “hide your strength, bide your time”, Xi seeks to put China on the global stage and universalise the Chinese dream.
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The Belt and Road Initiative is the centrepiece of Xi’s geo-economic strategy. Launched in 2013 in Indonesia, the belt and road has since expanded to almost every continent. China’s mega-infrastructure initiative has proved to be consequential, generating socio-economic uplift, especially in the global south.
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