Online Reporter
Wesley Magwagwa
Correspondent
AT a time when the world is shocked at, and grappling with, the United States’ slipping global stature — which many analysts may pin down, wrongly, to Donald Trump — China is showing what global leadership should be like.
This article examines ways in which China is showing its global leadership, as juxtaposed with US’ decline and failings at the international level; and draws the conclusion that China’s careful groundwork —from the right ideological (globalist) grounding, to crafting alternative systems — will lead to an eventual recentering of the world.
The recent press conference by Chinese top diplomat and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, showed just how China is in tune with the demands of the 21st Century world, and is ready to take the leadership mantle.
China is doing so, not by force of arms or personal bluster, but through unleashing a power that, until now, has been carefully planned and harnessed.
Undoubtedly, in basic terms, global power is seen through the matrices of domestic political power, economic and military strength and soft power projection.
The US has not lost all of these, but the writing is on the wall.
But what were the signs that came from Wang’s press conference — which ran under the theme, China’s Foreign Policy and External Relations — that indicate China doing things differently from the US, and the significance of the timing? Why should countries such as Zimbabwe be excited, and where do we go from here?
For context, Wang explained that 2024 “saw profound changes in the international landscape… This year, the international situation is still full of challenges”, but “the mission” of China’s diplomacy remained unchanged and the country would, along with other countries, “continue to uphold what is right, steer the direction of our era, defend international fairness and justice, and safeguard world peace and stability”.
This represents larger values and the bigger picture. There are more nuanced ways that China is re-shaping the world and asserting global leadership.
Championing Global South, African development
The Global South which includes Africa, represents the world’s largest population, least developed and most marginalised. It also represents the untapped riches and the world’s most significant natural and human resources, including the youngest populations which are the future of the world.
China has freely interacted with the majority of developing nations. This is a source of strength.
Wang said, “the Global South is a key force for maintaining world peace, driving world development, and improving global governance”.
Adding: “As the world is undergoing great transformation unseen in a Century, historic changes are taking place in the East-West and South-North dynamics. The Global South holds the key to bringing stability to the world and making it a better place.”
The Third World accounts for over 40 percent of global GDP and contributing as high as 80 percent of global growth. Regarding Africa, Wang noted that China and Africa “are always good friends, good partners and good brothers with a shared future”.
“Under the guidance of President Xi Jinping and African leaders, China-Africa relationship is now at its best in history,” he said, explaining the strategic partnerships with all African countries having diplomatic ties with it, as well as the FOCAC framework which has been in existence for the past 25 years.
China’s acting its size
While the US and its leader have become subject to ridicule over its handling of global issues from conflicts to climate change, with Trump increasingly derided for his temperament and decision making, in China, the world has a leader who offers something completely different.
Wang expounded on the positive and profound changes that China’s relations with the world have undergone: “First, China’s foreign policies, especially those important concepts and initiatives proposed by President Xi, are increasingly welcomed and supported by the international community,” Wang said.
“Second, China’s positive role in addressing global challenges and resolving burning and tough issues is more and more expected and commended by countries across the world. Third, the success of the Chinese path to modernisation and the inspiration it offers are increasingly recognised and emulated by more and more countries.”
Wang promised that 2025 was important for both China and the world because, there will be “new highlights in China’s head-of-state diplomacy” with Xi expected to make a number of overseas visits. “Head-of-state diplomacy will write a new chapter of closer cooperation and shared success between China and the world,” Wang said.
The contrast with US’ Trump is glaring, and China’s leadership is shining through. [As an explanatory note, the “major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics” is a pillar of “The Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”, and among its premises is that major country diplomacy aims to “foster a new type of international relations and build a community with a shared future”, Report to the 19th CPC National Congress, October 18, 2017]
True globalisation and multilateralism
China has recognised the value, essence and viability of globalisation and has put forth various mechanisms to foster cooperation.
There are more than 190 countries in the world and challenged protections and inward-looking policies.
“Should everyone stress ‘my country first’ and obsess over a position of strength, the law of the jungle would reign the world again,” Wang said.
President Xi has “proposed building a community with a shared future for mankind, and called on all countries to transcend disagreements and differences, jointly protect our only planet, and develop together the global village as our common home.”
China is pleased that many countries have joined the cause of building a community with a shared future with over 100 countries supporting China’s Global Development Initiative (GDI), Global Security Initiative (GSI), and Global Civilisation Initiative (GCI), and that more than three quarters of nations across the world have joined the family of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation.
“History will prove that a real winner is the one that keeps in mind the interests of all, and that a community with a shared future for mankind will ensure that the world belongs to every country, and that everyone will have a bright future.”
China aims to support common development, uphold a multilateral free trade system, and promote an inclusive environment for international collaboration and economic globalisation.
This approach is the very antithesis of the “America First” strategy of Trump.
UN, not US, at the centre
The flare-up seen in various global hotspots such as the crises in Ukraine and Gaza have persisted because the United Nations has been undermined by the US and its allies, particularly in relation to Israel.
Whereas global peace and security should be a collective, the US has taken the initiative to go it alone to save and shield Israel, in the glaring case of Gaza, for example.
This has seen the authority and viability of the current international rule of law being questioned and eroded. The parochialism has seen double standards, hypocrisy and selective application; or in some cases, the US resorting to bullying, monopoly and trickery or extortion.
All other global hotspots, including Sudan, Syria and Democratic Republic of Congo have suffered by the lack of initiative on the part of the US, which has gone on to undermine other institutions such as the International Criminal Court and the World Health Organisation.
By contrast, China has consistently advocated for more UN leadership.
Wang underscored the primacy of UN as the primary platform for actions and rhetoric aimed at maintaining world peace and promoting global governance.
Unilateralism is thus on the rise, and power politics runs rampant; and some countries have voiced scepticism of one kind or another about the UN.
“But China believes that the more complex the problems, the greater the need to accentuate the important status of the UN, the more pressing the challenges, the greater the need to uphold the due authority of the UN,” Wang said.
Fentanyl and failure, tariffs’ toll
Another way to look at the failure of the US, and why China has been anticipated by many to fill the leadership vacuum, is to analyse the US’ handling of the so-called fentanyl crisis and the tariffs issue.
The fentanyl crisis is a long-entrenched and intricate domestic problem of the US that it has so far blamed on countries such as China, Canada and Mexico.
The US has made this crisis an excuse to impose tariffs on its neighbours and long-time trading partners. However, both premises are wrong; and the fact that Trump has appeared to suffer a meltdown over the issue indicates that the US is mired in failure for its poor handling of the convoluted problem of drug and substance abuse.
The ongoing arbitrary tariffs drama represents a fresh example of self and ruinous economic policies of the US which instead of rationally addressing economic challenges, is digging an even bigger hole.
Wang stated that “the abuse of fentanyl in the United States is a problem that must be confronted and resolved by the United States itself”.
Implications and important lessons for the world
There are multiple lessons one can draw from the fast-evolving situation. One instructive lesson is that the unipolar world is unsustainable, and the US-centred unipolar world has become a glaring anachronism.
The results of US failures are now a danger not just to itself, but also to other countries, and the only remedy lies in the formation of a new system that pivots away from, and replaces, the current US-dominated system and its economic (capitalist) geopolitical and governance architecture.
A new, better and more sustainable system has become a strategic necessity.
At the same time, countries of the world need to be bold enough to reimagine the world beyond the soon-to-end “American century” and the post-WWII international system that has proved outdated, ineffective and incongruent with new realities. We should embrace opportunities presented by the emerging new order led by China.
There are several examples of how countries and regions can cooperate with China in this global re-engineering, because China has already organised various frameworks and platforms, such as BRICS, FOCAC and RCEP to all intents and purposes, which can be readily consolidated into a new organisational front.
Notwithstanding the philosophy that China does not seek to become the next hegemon or replace US as a global superpower, China should embrace its historical mandate and responsibility by taking assertive and proactive actions in shaping a better future for humanity, informed by both the lessons of the past and the contingencies of the present.
* The writer is a political scientist and associate researcher with a local think tank
