China speeds up charm offensive in Africa, Latin America & Middle East

NEW DELHI: Worsening Sino-US relations and the tightening of access to American and European markets for Chinese companies have prompted China’s leaders to reconfigure their approach to foreign affairs and look elsewhere for sources of economic growth.

As a result, Beijing has speeded up its diplomatic charm offensive in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, Yu Jie, Senior Research Fellow on China, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House, wrote in a recent article. The Chinese Communist Party National Congress in October 2022 offered an intriguing hint that Beijing’s management of its foreign affairs was undergoing a change of direction.

In his major speech, President Xi Jinping abandoned any mention of a ‘new type of great power relations’, a concept he had used repeatedly in his past two congressional updates when referring to his preferred approach to relations with the American-led West. The omission shows that Beijing has decided its fraught relationship with developed nations is here to stay, with little prospect of improvement, Yu said.

Xi has stressed that China should further develop its ties with the Global South through the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative together with the most recent addition, the Global Civilization Initiative. The three complementary ‘Gs’ combine in the Community of Common Destiny which Xi is proffering as an alternative to the West’s rules-based international order. The aim is to reshape the global governance agenda in multilateral forums and to project Beijing’s influence on to the developing world. Yet, large parts of the globe are still trying to work out what China’s latest moves entail, Yu said.

The international community was taken by surprise when Beijing managed to broker peaceful relations between long-term diplomatic rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia. But while China has traditionally focused on economic engagement in the Middle East, more recently it has shown a greater willingness to engage in regional conflict mediation. When leaders of the BRICS nations gathered for group photos at the end of their summit in Johannesburg last week, it offered a glimpse of the contours of the new world order Beijing is trying to shape, CNN reported.

Standing at the front and center was Xi Jinping, China’s powerful leader, surrounded by a stage of leaders from emerging markets and developing countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. The summit was the largest the BRICS have ever held, with more than 60 countries attending alongside member nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Flanking the current BRICS leaders were counterparts from Argentina, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – who had just been invited to join the club, CNN reported. The development is a big win for Xi, who has long pushed to expand the bloc and its clout despite reservations from other members such as India and Brazil, CNN reported. The expansion, the first since South Africa was added in 2010, is set to more than double the group’s membership and significantly extend its global reach – especially in the Middle East. IANS

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