Commentary: Could China save the world?

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Commentary: Could China save the world?





Xi Jinping may be the most powerful man in the world. His principal rival for that title – Joe Biden – presides over a dysfunctional political system in which effective domestic and foreign policymaking is difficult and contested.

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Xi faces no such internal constraints, a reality that is certain to be entrenched when he is given an unprecedented third term as China’s president at the 20th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) National Congress currently under way in Beijing.

The commentary in China surrounding this development is gushingly enthusiastic. Views in the broadly conceived West are predictably critical, if not alarmist.

There is little doubt that the growing band of China hawks in places such as Australia and the United States will see Xi’s continuing dominance as a dangerous centralisation of authoritarian power that will further erode civil society in China and threaten the security of its neighbours.

To be fair, they’ve got a point. China is increasingly repressive at home and “assertive” abroad. Not the best time, you might think, for great expectations about China’s international role.

And yet, if the world is ever going to address major collective action problems such as climate change, economic instability, or generally discouraging other states from believing that coercion pays, then China will have to be part of any possible solution.