China Is Winning the Heartland of the World

June 15, 2023

About the author:

 

Since 1976 when Canada joined the former Group of Six nations to make it the Group of Seven (G7), the international community has looked to it acting as a driving force of peace and development. There was no question that the G7 had aimed to “lead the world” as they possessed all the key elements of national power as Hans Morgenthau defined, e.g., “industrial capacity, quantity and quality of armed forces, economic efficiency and technological innovation.” 

 

However, it is now arguable that the world’s richest countries have lost their economic leadership edge, both in terms of GDP growth and soft power influence. For example, the total GDP of the G7 countries has dropped from 70% of the world total three decades ago to 45% in 2021. As for the GDP increase, G7 only counts for 25.7% of the world total in 2022, compared to China’s 38.6%. In addition, fractions within the G7 have grown on the global agenda since the Trump administration in 2017. So, the question arises if the “rich club” is still qualified to guide the path of development for the Global South even if the G7 has most of the key technologies and overall financial clout to leverage world affairs.

 

On May 19-21, the annual Summit of the G7 was held in Hiroshima, Japan, to discuss global challenges and potential security issues. In the wake of the meeting, the joint statement revealed their intention to “keep G7 together, Russia down, and China far away” in a competitive world since the United States has championed a “new Cold War” approach that aims to use all necessary means to bring “block confrontation” in the Asia-pacific. On the issue of the Ukraine crisis, the U.S. and its allies insisted on adding fuel to the fire, claiming “to support Ukraine ‘as long as it takes’ in the face of Russia’s illegal war of aggression.” In fact, China and most of Asian countries along with other Global South member nations have made all earnest efforts to call for peace talks between the two Slavic siblings.

 

As one of the most dynamic countries of the day, China prefers leaning to economic development and people-to-people diplomacy to achieve its geostrategic ends in its neighborhood and beyond. On May 18-19, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the first-ever China-Central Asia Summit in Xi’an, China, which was also termed as the “C+C5 format.”  President Xi said that the inaugural China-Central Asia summit was part of China’s long-term design to strengthen economic and political partnerships “of great minds and by engaging in full exchanges of views.”  Over the past decade, China has worked along with Central Asian countries to advance the Belt and Road Initiative with a view to benefiting people in the region and beyond.

 

Interestingly enough, the C+C5 summit kicked off on the eve of the annual G7 summit in Japan. Thus, it was widely opined that China aimed to challenge the dominance of the U.S.-led rich club in the world order which has been seen to thwart China’s economic progress while trespassing on its legitimate interests. At their Hiroshima summit, the G7 members claimed to stand together “to call on China to press Russia to hold its military aggression, and immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine,” disregarding the fact that China has been committed to advancing its peace proposal to both Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, the G7 vowed to invest $600 billion by 2027 in the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII), which was widely believed to be a counterweight to China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Asia and the world.

 

If we look into the joint statement issued by the C+C5 summit, China and its partners of Central Asia announced many regional cooperation plans and projects regarding infrastructure connection and regional green development, etc. By reading the common historical legacy over 2,000 years ago, Chinese pioneers along with their central Asian neighbors overcame countless ordeals and obstacles to open the transcontinental passage connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa, known as the Silk Road. Since then, the ancient routes had embodied the spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning, and reciprocal benefits while promoting the great heritage of human civilization. In the new era of a globalized world, China and Central Asian partners have vowed to further advance what the international community of a shared future needs such as win-win cooperation in terms of mutual security, common prosperity and social-cultural harmonies. For all these objectives, the six countries have agreed to support each other on the issues concerning their respective core security interests such as sovereignty, independence, security and territorial integrity, respect for the development path chosen based on each other’s national realities, and rejection of any attempt or claim to have right to sow discord or stoke confrontation in the region, let alone seeking selfish political interests.

 

Differing from the G7 approach to economic security based on their deepening partnership with the “small camp” and also arguing for “de-risking, de-coupling” from China, Beijing has once again endorsed the Belt and Road Initiative to complement the development strategies of countries involved by leveraging their comparative strengths. Accordingly, China and its partners in Central Asia have consented to coordinate with the policy initiatives of relevant countries, such as the Eurasian Economic Union of Russia, the Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, the Bright Road Initiative of Kazakhstan, the Middle Corridor Initiative of Turkey, etc. Particularly, China will support the development of the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor project, enhance the traffic capacity of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway and the China-Tajikistan-Uzbekistan highway. In addition, China will seek to modernize existing border ports, facilitate the air transportation market, and enhance a regional logistics network, including the advancement of the China-Europe Railway Express assembly centers. Thus, a multi-tiered Belt and Road Initiative cooperation network has taken an initial shape.

 

China is aware of the geostrategic value of Central Asia and its pivotal role in Eurasia. As the region has the largest population, the multi-sized countries, and the most diverse civilizations in the world, it is noteworthy that how to proceed with Asia-Europe cooperation not only concerns the well-being of the Central Asian peoples, but also has a profound significance on the development of the world. In geography, Central Asia is located in what is termed as the center of Eurasia. In geopolitics, Eurasia also refers to the “Heartland” of the world stretching from the Volga to the Yangtze and from the Himalayas to the Arctic Ocean. Considering this, since the end of WWII, the U.S. has looked to Eurasia as the key to its global strategy. Even after the end of the Cold War, US strategists like Kissinger and Brzezinski openly argued that “no matter which power, either of Europe or Asia, dominates Eurasia, that danger inevitably leads to the U.S. to see it as a structural threat to its primacy in the world.” Unfortunately, this has been the geostrategic legacy of the policy-making elite in Washington since they are committed to pursuing a unilateral hegemonic world order.

 

Still, there is more than one major power like the U.S. to watch the geostrategic leverage of Eurasia and the Middle East, especially after China mediated the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement last March. China has also had initial success in expanding the use of its currency by Arab Gulf countries for select transactions, such as energy purchases. In terms of geography and geopolitics, Russia, India, Iran, and Turkey are equally watchful on what will happen next in the region. So is the EU which has traditionally relied on natural resources and strategic hubs in the Eurasian area. Theresa Fallon, Director of the Center for Russia-Europe-Asia Studies in Brussels, observed that China was engaged in a “tough diplomatic tap dance” of trying to gain an edge with Central Asian countries without angering Mr. Putin. It is logical that China and Russia work together to oppose to the US hegemony since the U.S.-led geopolitical bloc has targeted China and Russia as the challengers and even rivals to the status quo. However, history shows that there are always some areas of potential consultation, cooperation, and frictions among major powers. Contrasting the scenario that Central Asia was once Russia’s own privileged sphere of influence, the C+C5 format demonstrated that the countries involved were aiming to “jointly foster a new paradigm of deeply complementary and high-level win-win cooperation.”

 

In fact, China has been working closely with countries in the region for decades in various developmental areas, while a growing number of Western states and their NGOs were, and still are trying to woo Central Asia. China has confirmed to the Central Asian countries that China would always be there as it is able to provide for the region’s practical needs. To that end, China has reiterated in the first place that the pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative requires a peaceful and stable environment to foster a new type of international relations featuring win-win cooperation. Secondly, China calls for the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security environment shared by all countries in the region and beyond. And thirdly, to pursue the Belt and Road Initiative, China appeals to the Central Asian countries to focus on the fundamental issues of development and long-term economic integration of the region and across the world.

 

China has possessed multi-capacities to launch major projects ranging from relatively modernized industries to highly-competitive infrastructure projects, and not to mention its huge investment capacity. So, hopefully China would be trying to succeed in establishing a fair, equitable, inclusive, and transparent framework of industries, trade, and investment through working with the C+C5 format. Taking the momentum of the Xi’an Summit, the six countries have officially inaugurated the C+C5 format as a regular mechanism. In the long run, the C+C5 format will provide the advantage of opportunity for the six countries to consult with each other directly, as the format is more dynamic and of geostrategic significance.

 

More important, China has pledged that it would never seek to take the C+C5 as a politicalized tool to pursue its own interests like a dominant player in Central Asia, nor would it try to fill a power vacuum now or in the future. Instead, China’s diplomatic and economic priorities are more focused on stability in its western periphery so as to effectively concentrate on its persistent security challenges to the east and in the Asia-Pacific region. What China wants essentially is that the U.S.-led West respects China’s legitimate rights and its core interests. This is the only prospect possible for recreating a new concert of major countries along with many others and the Global South to rebuild a multipolar world order based on the UN Charter.

 

 

1.  Hans Morgenthau, Politics among Nations (1985), pp. 127-142.

2.  Jana Puglierin, Pawel Zerka, “Keeping America close, Russia down and China far away: how Europeans navigate a competitive world”, European Council on Foreign Relations-Policy Brief, June 2023, pp. 1-3.

3. “G-7 Hiroshima Leaders’ Communique”, May 20, 2023, p. 1. 

4.  “President Xi Jinping chairs the inaugural China-Central Asia summit and delivers a key-note speech”, CGTN, May 19, 2023.

5.  Ibid.

6.  Xi’s keynote speech “Working Together for a China-Central Asia Community with a Shared Future Featuring Mutual Assistance, Common Development, Universal Security, and Everlasting Friendship”

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202305/t20230519_11079941.html

7.  Hans Morgenthau & Kenneth Thompson, Politics among Nations – the struggle for power and peace, pp. 127-79.

8. Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (1994), p. 813; Also see Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and its Geostrategic Imperatives (1997), p. 27.

9.  Nicole Hong, “As the U.S. attends the G7, China hosts a summit of its own”, The New York Times, 5-18, 2023.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please note: The above contents only represent the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of Taihe Institute.

 

This article is from the June issue of TI Observer (TIO), which is a monthly publication devoted to bringing China and the rest of the world closer together by facilitating mutual understanding and promoting exchanges of views. If you are interested in knowing more about the October issue, please click here:

http://www.taiheinstitute.org/Content/2023/06-30/2334020338.html

 

 

——————————————

ON TIMES WE FOCUS.

Should you have any questions, please contact us at public@taiheglobal.org