Ebook
The global implications of China’s rise as a global actor
In 2005, a senior official in the George W. Bush administration expressed the hope that China would emerge as a “responsible stakeholder” on the world stage. A dozen years later, the Trump administration dramatically shifted course, instead calling China a “strategic competitor” whose actions routinely threaten U.S. interests.
Both assessments reflected an underlying truth: China is no longer just a “rising” power. It has emerged as a truly global actor, both economically and militarily. Every day its actions affect nearly every region and every major issue, from climate change to trade, from conflict in troubled lands to competition over rules that will govern the uses of emerging technologies.
To better address the implications of China’s new status, both for American policy and for the broader international order, Brookings scholars conducted research over the past two years, culminating in a project: Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the World. The project is intended to furnish policy makers and the public with hard facts and deep insights for understanding China’s regional and global ambitions.
The initiative draws not only on Brookings’s deep bench of China and East Asia experts, but also on the tremendous breadth of the institution’s security, strategy, regional studies, technological, and economic development experts.
Areas of focus include the evolution of China’s domestic institutions; great power relations; the emergence of critical technologies; Asian security; China’s influence in key regions beyond Asia; and China’s impact on global governance and norms.
Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the World provides the most current, broad-scope, and fact-based assessment of the implications of China’s rise for the United States and the rest of the world.
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Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction, Tarun Chhabra, Rush Doshi, Ryan Hass, and Emilie Kimball
Section 1: Domestic Politics
1. Hu’s to Blame for China’s Foreign Assertiveness?, Rush Doshi
2. Beijing’s Nonmilitary Coercion—Tactics and Rationale, Ketian Zhang
3. Xi Jinping’s “Proregress”: Domestic Moves toward a Global China, Cheng Li
Section 2: East Asia
4. Trying to Loosen the Linchpin: China’s Approach to South Korea, Jung H. Pak
5. Lips and Teeth: Repairing China–North Korea Relations, Evans J. R. Revere
6. From Persuasion to Coercion: Beijing’s Approach to Taiwan and Taiwan’s Response, Richard Bush
7. How China’s Actions in the South China Sea: Undermine the Rule of Law, Lynn Kuok
8. The U.S.-China Nuclear Relationship: Why Competition Is Likely to Intensify, Caitlin Talmadge
Section 3: Great Powers
9. China and the Return of Great Power: Strategic Competition, Bruce Jones
10. U.S.-China Relations: The Search for a New Equilibrium, Ryan Hass
11. China, Japan, and the Art of Economic Statecraft, Mireya Solís
12. Managing China: Competitive Engagement, with Indian Characteristics, Tanvi Madan
13. Russia and China: Axis of Revisionists?, Angela Stent
14. Europe Changes Its Mind on China, Thomas Wright
Section 4: Technology
15. Preparing the United States for the Superpower Marathon with China, Michael Brown, Eric Chewning, and Pavneet Singh
16. Navigating the U.S.-China 5G Competition, Nicol Turner Lee
17. Managing China’s Rise in Outer Space, Frank A. Rose
18. Dealing with Global Demand for China’s Surveillance Exports, Sheena Chestnut Greitens
19. Maintaining China’s Dependence on Democracies for Advanced Computer Chips, Saif M. Khan and Carrick Flynn
20. Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy in China’s Drive for Military Innovation, Elsa B. Kania
21. China’s Role in the Global Biotechnology Sector and Implications for U.S. Policy, Scott Moore
Section 5: Regional Influence and Strategy
22. China and Latin America: A Pragmatic Embrace, Ted Piccone
23. The Middle East and a Global China: Israel amid U.S.-China Competition, Natan Sachs and Kevin Huggard
Saudi Arabia’s Relations with China, Bruce Riedel
24. Great Expectations: The Unraveling of the Australia-China Relationship, Natasha Kassam
25. The Risks of China’s Ambitions in the South Pacific, Jonathan Pryke
26. China, the Gray Zone, and Contingency Planning at the Department of Defense and Beyond, Michael O’Hanlon
27. All That Xi Wants: China Attempts to Ace Bases Overseas, Leah Dreyfuss and Mara Karlin
Section 6: The Global Economy
28. Reluctant Player: China’s Approach to International Economic Institutions, David Dollar
29. The Renminbi’s Prospects as an International Currency, Eswar Prasad
30. China’s Digital Services Trade and Data Governance: How Should the United States Respond?, Joshua P. Meltzer
31. China’s Influence on the Global Middle Class, Homi Kharas and Meagan Dooley
32. The Global Energy Trade’s New Center of Gravity, Samantha Gross
33. Can the United States and China Reboot: Their Climate Cooperation?, Todd Stern
Section 7: Global Governance
34. International Law with Chinese Characteristics: Assessing China’s Role in the “Rules-Based” Global Order, Robert D. Williams
35. China’s Expanding Influence at the United Nations—and How the United States Should React, Jeffrey Feltman
36. China’s Influence on the United Nations Human Rights System, Sophie Richardson
37. How to Curb China’s System of Oppression in Xinjiang, Dahlia Peterson and James Millward
Contributors
Index
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“Put simply, no international relationship will be more
consequential in the twenty-first century than that of the United
States and China. Responding to this pressing need, the Brookings
project—Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the
World—provides both unprecedented breadth and depth in the
evaluation of China’s actions, and their implications for U.S.
interests and values.”
—John R. Allen, president, the Brookings Institution
“For as long as I can remember, the breathless pace of change in
China meant you had to see it firsthand, on a regular basis, to
make sense of political, economic, and social developments.
Global China provides that perspective to get past the
unfortunate tendency to simply admire the problem, helpfully
identifying comparative advantages and vulnerabilities brought by
Beijing’s expanding interests, making it a ;welcome tool for
strategists and policymakers.”
—David Stilwell, former assistant secretary of state for East Asian
and Pacific Affairs
“If we expect to successfully counter the threats that China
poses to U.S. economic and national security, we must first
understand the complexity of the challenge, and then develop short-
and long-term strategies that are comprehensive and multilateral.
This book effectively underscores the most serious issues that
lawmakers must consider in dealing with China’s rise, and provides
a number of noteworthy recommendations going forward.”
—U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner, chairman, Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence
“China’s transformation from a regional actor to global power
and geopolitical rival will have profound implications for the
national security of the United States, our partners, and our
allies. Leveraging the insights of an impressive array of experts,
this volume provides a clear set of recommendations designed to
ensure that the United States can effectively contend with a
rapidly shifting global environment.”
—U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman, House Permanent Select Committee
on Intelligence
Tarun Chhabra was a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, and director of the Brookings Institution's Project on International Order and Strategy. He previously served on the National Security Council staff and Department of Defense. He has written on U.S. grand strategy, U.S.-China relations, and U.S.- allied technology cooperation.Rush Doshi is a former director of the Brookings China Strategy Initiative and fellow in the Brookings Foreign Policy program. He is also a former fellow at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center. He is the author of The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order.Ryan Hass is the Armacost Chair in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. Hass also is a nonresident fellow at Yale Law School's Tsai China Center, and a senior advisor at McLarty Associates and The Scowcroft Group. He is author of Stronger: Adapting America's China Strategy in an Age of Competitive Interdependence.Emilie Kimball is an executive assistant in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. Prior to working at Brookings, she served as a staff officer on the National Security Council from 2015 to 2018, where she helped manage the national security decisionmaking process and staffed the President on foreign travel.