China’s call for cooperation

Attended by over 20 heads of states and governments, 500 political parties and organizations belonging to 160 plus countries and 10,000 party delegates, the World Parties Political Summit arranged by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was certainly the largest political gathering in recent memory.

The summit represented the climactic point of a series of high-profile events held by the CPC to celebrate the 100 years of its founding. The idea was not just to highlight the successes that the CPC achieved during the course of the last 100 years and the challenges it encountered along the path. The occasion was also employed to project China’s diplomatic, political and economic clout as part of broad messaging meant to herald the arrival of Beijing as a power vying for global influence and prestige.

Held in the backdrop of the recently concluded Conference of the G7 countries and the Nato summit, the CPC moot acquired an added importance, and the Chinese authorities primed the events around the CPC centenary celebrations for optics, symbolism and serious messaging.

While there is disagreement among experts of international relations and foreign policy practitioners about whether the competition between the US and China will lead to a new era of a cold war, what is, however, agreeable is the prospect of the major power rivalry shaping the world in significant ways.

The Biden Administration may be more nuanced in the selection of words to articulate its ‘China challenge’; all indications, however, suggest that an obsession with China continues to dominate the foreign policy agenda of the new US administration. In what is clearly a policy continuity on China underpinned by a bipartisan consensus, President Biden has taken steps that are not likely to be received well in Beijing.

The ‘China factor’ has emerged as a key determinant of American foreign policy which is otherwise said to be representing the interests of the middle class with a focus on domestic challenges. The launch of the Build Back Better World (B3W) as a counterweight to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) underscores the seriousness with which the US and the allies are invested in the process of containing the rising Chinese influence.

One of the key reasons offered by the Biden Administration to explain the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan is the need for concentrating energies and resources to deal with China that the National Security Strategy has described both as a rival and a threat to American interests and leadership around the world.

And in the process of quitting Afghanistan, the US did not even bother to ensure putting in place a political arrangement as an outcome of the intra-Afghan dialogue process to stop the already war-torn country from plunging into a long period of violence. Such was the urgency of the shift necessitated by the ‘China factor.’

Of late, the US and its Western allies have increased their criticism of China over its alleged treatment of Uyghur Muslims, handling of the pandemic, particularly the origin of the virus, heavy-handed tactics employed to put down pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and more importantly, assertiveness in the region and beyond.

The purpose of narrating the foregoing is to set the context for the CPC Summit in an effort to develop a better understanding of what President Xi Jinping, who is also general secretary of the CPC, said in his keynote address to an attentive world.

The summit underlined the theme of people’s wellbeing as the foremost responsibility of political parties around the world to emphasize the importance of making the process of development participatory and inclusive. The development gap between the Global North and South is increasing and can only be stemmed if political parties prioritize pro-people policies.

Reiterating his idea of creating a community of shared interests, President Xi Jinping democratized the notion of development and growth, calling it a right of every nation and not an exclusive privilege of the select few. He made it clear that no country or nation deserves to be left behind on the path to development. “We need to enable all countries to step up development cooperation and see to it that the fruits of development are shared by all,” Xi urged the participants of the summit.

Without naming any names, the Chinese leader furthered the idea of multilateralism and urged the world that “we should be opposed to the practice of unilateralism disguised as multilateralism and say no to hegemony and power politics.”

Indirectly responding to the criticism of China’s increasing global footprint, President Xi rejected any notion that his country was seeking hegemony, expansion or extending its sphere of influence. A noteworthy point was his declaration that Beijing will remain part of the developing world, working for a rules-based international order through mutual consensus and cooperation.

Pitching the successes of the CPC in terms of poverty reduction as a role model for the world, he expressed his readiness to share CPC’s experience with the rest of the world. Jinping proudly mentioned how the CPC has worked hard to lift 98.88 million rural people from extreme poverty since 2012, an achievement that enabled China to meet SDG targets ten years ahead of the 2030 deadline. He also assured more cooperation for the availability of corona vaccines to the developing countries.

President Xi used his emphasis on multilateralism as a foil to highlight how the US under Trump retreated into a cocoon of ‘America first’. Leaving nothing to imagination as to who he was referring to, he stated: “Looking at the angle of ‘My Country First’, the world is narrow and crowded and often full of fierce competition.” He also called for rejection of countries that promoted the idea of ‘technology blockades’ and engaged in ‘developmental decoupling.’

The CPC Summit was an instance of political diplomacy to reiterate China’s positions on issues that not only matter to Beijing but also to the wider world. The new party-to-party relationship that the CPC Central Committee seeks to forge with the political organizations around the world is defined by a conscious policy to base the ties on the foundations of shared interests.

In exploring the ways and means to strengthen linkages with friendly countries including parliamentary, educational and cultural exchanges and avenues for win-win partnerships, the CPC has a stellar record of public service that supports its credentials for such joint undertakings.

It goes to the credit of the CPC that since its founding in 2021, it has come a long way. The party has evolved with the passage of time and effectively took on the challenges of each period, thus setting a stage for China to assert itself more confidently on the global stage.

The renewed push for greater international visibility of the CPC is driven by the need to respond to the criticism it has faced, particularly from Western countries. It is eager to project its people-centric development model to kill what it terms as propaganda.

Amid serious threats to the rules-based order, China is continuously urging the world to promote multilateral approach and economic globalisation as building blocks for strong and responsive global institutions.

The World Political Parties Summit reiterated the call to privilege cooperation over confrontation, this time with robust support from a wide community of world leaders and political organizations.

The writer, a Chevening scholar, studied International Journalism at the University of Sussex.

Email: amanatchpk@gmail.com