Anushka Saxena
Source Link
The State Council has unveiled a new White Paper on China’s vision for arms control, disarmament, non-proliferation, and global security as a whole. I have taken to a broad translation into English for the brief breakdown that follows.
To start off, there are new and interesting articulations of China’s views and perspectives on the world today. In the past, Chinese documents have often argued that the world is undergoing “profound changes unseen in a century.” That is missing from this White Paper. The change in said view and perception is now being articulated as:
Two things are essential to note here: a) that China unequivocally advocates for a multilateral world order, and b) it believes itself to be a power nearing equivalence with the US, and would very much so like to be one of the powers in pole position (metaphorically, and also literally, if you’re an F1 fan!).
In that sense, China obviously sees itself as playing a central role in the new world order being constructed, moving from being a mere “participant” in international arms control to a would-be “architect” of new global norms. For this reason, one can concur that the central thesis of the White Paper is as follows: The current international order is being eroded by “hegemonism” (by the US) and “small yards with high fences” (i.e. technological containment and self-reliance). China hence proposes an alternative order based on the “Global Security Initiative” (GSI) and a “Community of Shared Future,” framing access to technology as a “development right” that supersedes Western non-proliferation concerns.
No comments:
Post a Comment