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Weekend Reads
Amid the United States’ rising competition with the People’s Republic of China, many developing nations believe that their interests and values better align with what Beijing is promising than with what Washington is delivering.
The US and allies such as Japan and Australia have to accept and respond to this reality. John Lee explains how below.
To learn more, read the full report or join Hudson for a live event with Lee and other experts on Tuesday, September 10, at 2:00 p.m.
Key Insights
To counter the political and information warfare China is conducting in the Global South, the US and its allies should begin with country-specific assessments regarding the following:
- Strategic dangers and opportunities in the target country or institution (which means assessing and countering what China is seeking to achieve)
- The elites who matter in the target country, how they construct their political and personal interests, and how they apply certain narratives when pursuing such interests
- Which Chinese narratives have taken root and are most compelling to the country’s elites in shaping their interpretation of, and responses to, events
- The extent to which Chinese narratives have shaped and changed the implementation of strategy in the country
These assessments will help the US understand why an individual leader, government, or nation is making certain strategic and policy decisions.
China’s Global South strategy depends heavily on narrative dominance and the use of material offerings to achieve elite capture in targeted countries. Merely doing good works and maintaining high standards is insufficient to combat this. Washington needs to more explicitly deploy overseas development assistance (ODA) to influence elite behavior, governance institutions, and norms in the region. And if China has already irretrievably captured certain local elites, then the democratic allies should make efforts to expose these elites’ (almost universally) covert reliance on China and use resources to empower other elites.
America previously offered access to the US market in exchange for strategic compliance, but this no longer works for building relationships with developing economies. While Washington is making good ground with advanced-economy allies such as Japan, Australia, South Korea, and Taiwan to reduce dependence on Chinese industry, the US needs to strike a considerably different bargain with developing nations—one that is consistent with the political imperative of reinvigorating domestic pillars of national power and wealth.
Quotes may be edited for clarity and length.
Go Deeper
A static deterrence-by-denial approach is no longer sufficient to deter China. John Lee and Lavina Lee lay out a strategy to impose economic and political costs to change Beijing’s calculus about invading Taiwan.
As the United States begins a new cold war with China, policymakers need to formulate a strategy for the war’s end, writes Distinguished Fellow Mike Gallagher in the Wall Street Journal.
As danger spreads across the globe, the free nations of the West are in retreat. Walter P. Stern Chair Nikki Haley argued that it’s time for the US to launch “a historic effort to rebuild its strength,” starting with increased economic, military, and diplomatic support for Taiwan.
Act Now
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