How China moulds the world

It is shaping a world order where its core interests and its ideas of human rights gain widespread accepted

Beijing Rules: China’s Quest for Global Influence

Author: Bethany Allen

Publisher: Hachette India

Pages: 400 

Price: Rs 799

This book argues that China today is ready to use every tool possible to achieve its goal of extending its global influence. This influence is not just military in nature but is complemented with economic, cultural, media, and soft power. The major goal of Chinese policies today is to challenge the international order and replace it with one that caters more to Chinese aspirations.

Such a world order is one where Chinese core interests are respected and Beijing’s ideas of human rights and international norms are accepted. To achieve this world, the author argues, China has successfully managed to “weaponise” its economic prowess and attractiveness of its huge markets to push the world to accept its terms and conditions.

It is a world where Chinese censorship and the idea of Party loyalty reign supreme. The book underscores this sentiment by asserting that in “… Xi’s China, any higher calling that could supersede party loyalty is suspect — whether that is religion, ethnic identity, or even commitment to the pursuit of truth, transparency, or knowledge.”

Some of the most prominent developments that have jolted the world to study and analyse this development are the censorship policy initiated by Zoom as a condition to continue its presence in China, banning of coal and other products from Australia, the Philippines and South Korea, among others. Most of these trade bans followed some criticism of Beijing’s policies by the countries concerned. China used its economic leverage to punish countries that did not align with its understanding of policies. The author says, if Australia were keen on making China its enemy, Beijing is not going to shy away from being one.

The Covid-19 pandemic also showed the depth of influence that China enjoyed over major international organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO). China used its connections with the Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus to push WHO narratives to fulfil its domestic political agenda. The fact that WHO was critical of Taiwan, while China managed to push nations to switch their diplomatic alliance to Beijing in exchange for vaccines and starved Taiwan from receiving any vaccines from the global system, underscores how WHO had become a tool in Chinese hands. The pandemic “was a wake-up call for policymakers, exposing China’s ability and willingness to manipulate global supply chains in its favour,” Bethany Allen writes.

This development ended any naiveté the West harboured about China. In its initial encounters, Western governments believed China would embrace liberalism as economic growth and exposure to the liberal world increased. Economic openness would eventually be reflected in the political sphere, the thinking went. Now the world is waking up to a new kind of Chinese challenge, Ms Allen explains: “As Xi Jinping has extended party guidance to private enterprise, business ties too have become a means of Chinese party-state political coercion abroad.”

China is also weaponising its diaspora. One major organisation that works for the Party in this direction is the United Fronts Work Department (UFWD), which is heavily and secretly funded. China believes that keeping tabs on its diaspora is critical because “the Chinese Communist Party is often quite good at learning from history, and the danger of Chinese diaspora abroad is one lesson it learned very well”.  But such actions have aggravated suspicions towards overseas Chinese.

China has passed several domestic laws with clauses applicable to the Chinese diaspora, the most prominent being the National Security Law that was implemented in Hong Kong in 2020. As a result, several pro-democracy activists across the globe now have to constantly be worried that they might be extradited to China anytime. Such actions only strengthen Beijing’s reach and influence. As the author argues, “It was a shot across the bow warning Beijing’s critics that no matter where in the world they lived, the party was coming for them. It was also a direct attack on American civil society and political freedom, a clear message that Beijing believed its jurisdiction extended onto US soil.”

The book lays out a timely and convincing outline of Chinese actions, policies and plans that have a capacity to impact and challenge global norms and beliefs. The downside, Ms Allen points out, is that the more Beijing uses the threat of market denial, this power or leverage may lose its credibility and attractiveness. The book also outlines policies and actions that the United States can employ to challenge and limit Chinese influence in terms of “cross-domain retaliation”. This sets the book apart from the existing literature on the topic.

The book successfully highlights that China no longer relies only on hard power but has moved more to the realm of norms and ideas, underlining that Beijing will use every possible resource at its disposal to exert its prowess and mould the existing world order.

The reviewer is assistant professor, OP Jindal Global University