World News | China Attempts to Change the World with Global Initiatives
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would like the world to think China is a benevolent power for good in the world, and that its only ambition is “win-win” outcomes for everybody. However, only the gullible would actually believe such hype and spin that Beijing puts out.
Hong Kong, October 27 (ANI): The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would like the world to think China is a benevolent power for good in the world, and that its only ambition is “win-win” outcomes for everybody. However, only the gullible would actually believe such hype and spin that Beijing puts out.
China’s desire to dominate global affairs is evident in four initiatives it has proposed and is implementing, namely the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Governance Initiative. It is worth looking at each in turn, before discussing just why the CCP and its head, Chairman Xi Jinping, are pushing these to cover hidden agendas.
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Suffice to say for now that these four global initiatives, or pillars of its foreign policy, are designed to challenge the dominance of the USA and the free and open international order that the West represents, at least before President Donald Trump eroded many of these principles. Simultaneously, China is seeking to increase its influence in forums such as the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization. It is also a leading light in the BRICS (originally denoting Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, but now expanded to encompass eleven countries) grouping.
Beijing is also attempting to get the so-called Global South on side, and it paints itself as an advocate for these developing countries. Chinese moves are astute, and many nations are willing to go along with China in order to reap benefits along the way.
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Examining each of the four Chinese global initiatives in turn, the first to be publicly promoted was the Global Development Initiative in September 2021. Ostensibly its aim is to accelerate implementation of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Xi also said in 2024: “We should play an active and leading role in the global economic governance reform, and make development the core of international economic and trade agenda.”
China claims more than 130 countries and international organisations (there are 195 recognized nations in the world) “support participation in the initiative,” whatever that might mean. China also claims that, by June 2026, more than US$23 billion in development funds have been mobilised, and more than 1,800 cooperation projects launched. Of course, these figures should be treated with caution. In fact, the majority of Chinese foreign investment is in developed countries, and grant aid is just a tiny proportion of its foreign funding.
The second concept floated by Xi’s government was the Global Security Initiative in April 2022. This is not entirely original, for Xi has followed in the footsteps of his predecessors here, and he invokes visions of a world free of international conflict, and the promotion of international stability, peace and development.
One part of this, according to China, is respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, and taking the legitimate security concerns of others seriously. However, the rub is that Beijing pushes its weight around against weaker nations such as the Philippines, and totally disrespects and treads on others’ territorial integrity and rights. Despite its hypocrisy, China criticises others for pursuing a “Cold War mentality” and “bloc politics”. It also states that differences should be resolved peacefully through dialogue, something it is failing to do in the South China Sea, instead preferring violence and coercion.
Security is a very nebulous concept for China, and it can expand or contract to almost anything it wants. According to China’s definition, security includes traditional issues of peacekeeping, nuclear proliferation and maritime security; regional issues such as security cooperation mechanisms and organisations; and also non-traditional security issues like health, cyberspace governance, digital governance, nuclear security, maritime governance and the environment.
The next concept to appear in March 2023 was the Global Civilization Initiative, with the admonition that “peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom are the common pursuit of people of all countries”. Beijing lists four goals – respect for diversity of civilizations and cultures; common humanity values (though it says imposing interpretations on concepts such as democracy must be avoided); continuity and evolution of civilizations; and closer people-to-people exchanges and cooperation.
Oddly, the CCP is championing values internationally that it refuses to espouse at home. China’s abhorrent treatment of ethnic minorities such as its own Tibetans and Uyghurs is well documented, as is its intolerance of religious groups such as Christians and Falun Gong.
Nor does the CCP have any interest in democracy. China is an authoritarian one-party state that brooks no political competition.
Naturally, there is hidden danger in China’s proposals. It hates it when the West promotes universal values such as human rights. Instead, it speaks of “common values”, without ever defining them. Obviously, China’s “common values” must differ vastly from the free and open system advocated by the Western world. By refusing to define “common values”, China can adapt them later to suit its own position. This is the dangerous contradiction that China poses, for its makes up its own definitions to suit its own interests after first luring in the unwitting.
The final pillar for Chinese policy on the world stage is the Global Governance Initiative. First heralded by Xi in September 2025, it covers things such as sovereign equality, international rule of law, multilateralism, a people-centred approach and real results. This is all very nebulous, and probably deliberately so.
Again, the paradox between Chinese words and actions is plain to see. China’s attitude to international law is evident in its vehement and excoriating treatment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration after its judgement came down on the side of the Philippines ten years ago.
That court case examined Chinese territorial claims and actions in the South China Sea, and the CCP reacted viciously because it knew it did not have a legal leg to stand on. In other words, China is perfectly content to play the international rule of law card when it suits, and to ignore it when it does not.
So what is really behind all these Chinese initiatives? Given that they have been introduced one by one, it appears they have been created without an overarching strategy. Of course, they have been attributed to Xi’s brilliant mind, but they are simply policies of convenience to achieve what Xi and the CCP want.
Charles Parton, Chief Adviser to the China Observatory and an Honorary Fellow at the UK-based Council on Geostrategy, wrote a report entitled “China’s Four ‘Global Initiatives’:
Attempting to Change the Global Order”. In it he asserted, “The four global initiatives are built upon a base of opposition to the US and upon the CCP’s ambition to replace it as the dominant world power and arbiter of values. Sometimes mentioned, sometimes unnamed, the US and its allies are presented as the antithesis and nemesis of the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and developing nations in almost all CCP speeches, meetings and articles on the global initiatives.”
This antipathy is seen in Xi’s speech at the closing ceremony of the BRICS Business Forum in August 2023. China’s leader stated, “Should we work together to maintain peace and stability, or just sleepwalk into the abyss of a new Cold War? Should we embrace prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, or allow hegemonic and bullying acts to throw us into depression?”
China likes to talk up its alternative vision of the world. For example, a People’s Daily article stated, “Instead of following the old path of a traditional power rising through war, colonization and plunder, China has taken a new path of state-to-state relations featuring dialog rather than confrontation, and partnership rather than alliances.”
Parton remarked: “The PRC is not just trying to sell the attractiveness of the ‘China model’. It is also urging the rejection of a liberal, democratic model by highlighting and exaggerating its deficiencies.”
The academic pointed out, “It is not hard to pick holes in the CCP’s claims of a superior model.” He gave the example of global health, where China’s refusal to allow access to information caused more deaths globally during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the CCP’s harsh treatment of its citizens through lockdowns, as well as Beijing’s sudden lifting of all restrictions and the rampant spread of the coronavirus, shows just how much value it places on human life and dignity.
Parton continued: “Hypocrisy is rife, such as the Global Security Initiative’s principle of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and non-interference in others’ internal affairs. Support for Russia over Ukraine, the activities of the United Front and trans-border repression in other countries jar with the propaganda. Even the condemnation of ‘bloc politics and camp-based confrontation’ sits uneasily with the CCP’s overall approach.
The PRC may not conclude formal alliances, but it is attempting to weave a web of agreements into an opposition to the developed countries.”
Nonetheless, many of the things that China says resonate with the developing world. Chinese diplomatic outreach to these nations certainly outdoes what the USA does, for instance. The free flow of Chinese money, often into the pockets of corrupt leaders, also pays ample dividends.
Things have become even more complicated by the actions of an irascible American president. The imposition of tariffs, the cutting of the USAID budget, and lunatic decision- making have all made it look like China is the only mature adult in the room.
Parton observed, “The instinct and interest of many countries is to try to ride both horses, to maintain relations with both the PRC and free and open nations on as wide a front as possible. How easy that will continue to be depends on the dependencies (for example, technology, industry, telecommunications, critical resources and artificial intelligence) that the PRC develops, and how severely it exploits them.”
In his explainer report for the Council on Geostrategy, Parton had some suggestions. He said the West needs to take a leaf out of the CCP’s playbook, for it is losing the public diplomacy war. Western countries need more effective “propaganda departments”. For example, China, despite its pleas of largesse, is not a generous donor in the Pacific region. Australia supplies five times the grants and loans that Beijing does, plus the latter’s money is typically in the form of commercial loans that come with attendant risks such as debt burdens. China’s 2024 international development aid amounted to just US$3.5 billion in 2024, the equivalent of 0.02% of its gross domestic product. Such messages need to be told.
The Briton lamented that Western nations have failed to counter the narrative behind China’s Global Governance Initiative too. Even without the USA, other middle powers need to push for reforms in global governance and to offer a different vision than what China is proffering.
Parton correctly noted: “The CCP’s top priority is staying in power. This underpins both domestic and foreign policy. In external policy, the aim is not simply to become a replacement for the US. The PRC will not become a global policeman – even if it had an economy capable of supporting such a role, which it does not. The CCP wants a world that is safe for its form of governance; regional dominance free of American influence; more – if not decisive – influence in defining global rules; and minimal challenges to its interests and values.”
In other words, China’s global initiatives are all entirely selfish. Over time, however, as influence accrues, Beijing could imagine a revival of the ancient concept of tian xia, where China was acknowledged by all as the center of the world. Parton suggested the best parallel is suzerainty, i.e., “having supremacy and dominant influence over the foreign policy and economic relations of another subordinate party”.
Parton warned, “Empires emerge not from a long-term strategic plan, but from an accretion of reactions to incidents and circumstances. The ‘shared community’ tone of current pronouncements works well as a rising power contests the established order.
Later, though, it may give way to a harsher reality as the PRC exercises greater power and utilizes deeper dependencies.” (ANI)
(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)