China, America, and the World (More Viewpoints)
I am not the only Substacker writing about China, America, and the changing world order in the past week. Warwick Powell (Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology) and Lizzi C. Lee (Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis) also weighed in on this topic. Discussion and links to our respective articles are posted below.
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The points raised by Warwick and Lizzi about China and the world are intriguing and worthy of careful consideration. They highlight how more of the world is seeing China in a positive light and why China’s leadership believes that its system is better than the Western model—perspectives that are neither heard nor appreciated inside the halls of American governance.
While I do not believe that China is the panacea that some make the country out to be, at the same time, I do not believe that China is the global villain that others trumpet.
This is not a people-to-people issue. I read articles and posts that we need strengthened people-to-people contacts to help improve our relationship. I have friends who say come to China to see the real story and not what you read in the American press (I am going this Spring after almost eight years away). I agree with these sentiments. They are necessary, welcome, and to be promoted with vigor.
However, the more meaningful and consequential issue here is government-to-government. My biggest fear is that the boulder that is the American government is already rolling downhill too fast to be stopped. And it promises to rocket even faster in three days (January 20th). Continued American blaming, sanctioning, and hysteria will be counterproductive. It may in fact already be too late, but I continue to argue that we need to cut through superficial labeling and analyze the changing world order with more nuance. Warwick and Lizzi help us do just that.
Warwick Powell (on personal Substack)
Warwick talks about America’s efforts to contain an increasingly powerful China. One of the tools in the containment belt is a “misinformation war” aimed to “diminish China’s accomplishments, create doubts about China's economic sustainability and ultimately seek to undermine China's reputation and standing across the globe.”
The question is, is it working? He cites a recent survey by the Beijing-based Global Times Institute (more than 51,000 respondents) that looked at attitude towards China in forty-six countries. Based on this, the war is falling flat. “Over 70 percent of respondents from developing countries, the Middle East and BRICS countries believe that China's overall national strength is high. Even in other developed countries, the number surpasses 60 percent. Respondents are looking for China to play a positive and active role in global affairs, recognizing China as belonging to the so-called Global South.”
China’s success is that it “has managed to punch through the constraints of Bretton Woods finance and US technological dominance to achieve national economic and social development outcomes that are globally unprecedented, without waging wars of expropriation. In doing so, it has provided inspiration for many across the developing world that unshackling the prevailing systems of uneven development is possible.”
Lizzi C. Lee (on ChinaTalk)
Lizzi analyzes a keystone, if not turgid, speech given by Xi Jinping in February 2023, but only published at the end of December 2024. She summarizes Xi’s “simple pitch” – “[M]odernization doesn’t have to follow the Western script. In fact, it shouldn’t. He blames Western modernization for prioritizing capital over people, resulting in runaway inequality, entrenched social divisions, and political instability. For Xi, this isn’t just a bug in the system — it’s the system’s defining feature.”
While recognizing ironies, inadequacies, and challenges between Xi’s desired shaping of the world and some of the realities of today’s China, she goes on to quote Xi as saying that China’s modernization “…is different. It’s ‘people-centered,’ aiming for a balance between material wealth and spiritual well-being. It’s a model designed to suit China’s history, culture, and governance system — not a one-size-fits-all approach borrowed from the West.”
Most importantly, “Xi portrays China’s model not just as an alternative but as an improvement to the Western system, which he accuses of failing those who tried to copy it. It’s a not-so-subtle attempt to redefine modernization itself — and to shift the narrative away from Western dominance.”
Conclusion
The world order is changing. It has already changed. If America cannot stabilize itself and stop the boulder, or at least slow it down, if the country cannot learn to accept and fashion a modified leading role in a new world, we will sacrifice position, power, and prestige. China is making its case to the world outside North America and Europe, and the government is enjoying measurable early successes in its efforts.
Article Links
Warwick Powell, Winning hearts and minds in a changing world
Lizzi C. Lee, What Xi Believes
Andrew Singer, World Order Gymnastics 2025
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