China Pursuing Sovereign Equality, Not Global Dominance, Expert Says
Quick Look
- Da Wei, director of Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy, stated that China is forging an alternative path based on sovereign equality and multilateralism, not global dominance.
- He believes US global institutional hegemony is ending as the world moves towards nationalism and realism.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
The world has operated within a US-anchored liberal multilateral system since the 1990s. However, recent US diplomacy signals a potential shift away from sustaining this structure.
Beijing was forging an alternative path rooted in sovereign equality and multilateralism, rather than a quest for global dominance, said Da Wei, director of Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy.
“I believe America’s global institutional hegemony is coming to an end,” Da told a public seminar at Renmin University of China in Beijing on Wednesday, noting this demise was unlikely to be reversed.
“It’s hard to return [to that situation] as the world is rethinking liberalism – the very foundation of US hegemony – and marching towards nationalism and realism instead.”
Since the 1990s, the world has operated within a liberal multilateral system anchored by Washington. However, since Donald Trump’s first presidential term, Washington’s “table-flipping” diplomacy signalled that the US no longer wished to sustain this global structure, Da said.
However, he stressed that this did not equate to the decline of US national power, noting that the “post-American era” had not yet arrived. Rather, the execution of US leadership had shifted from an institutional focus to one that prioritised coercion and transaction.
Open Questions
- What specific alternative path will China forge?
- How will other nations respond to the shift in US leadership?
- What are the implications of the 'post-American era'?
