COMMENTARY / World

What is Beijing’s ultimate endgame? The answer is clear.

Despite what it says, like all great powers, China is seeking to lead the world

While Beijing promotes a vision of a peaceful and cooperative world, its foreign policy increasingly involves coercion, military buildup and assertive actions that challenge the existing international order. | REUTERS

By Brad Glosserman
Contributing Writer

Mar 27, 2024

A simple question hangs over China’s relations with the West: What does Beijing want?

Chinese officials insist that they want a world in which all nations live and work together to create and enjoy shared peace and prosperity. This happy vision of equality and security is belied by increasingly forceful foreign policy, acts of coercion against nations that defy Beijing and the acquisition and buildup of military capabilities that suggest an ever-greater readiness to actively shape the world to better align with Chinese preferences.

Which do we believe: China’s rhetoric or the accumulating evidence? What does China want?

What is Beijing’s ultimate endgame? The answer is clear.

Despite what it says, like all great powers, China is seeking to lead the world

In your social network

In your inbox

In your social network

In your inbox