China benefits from global stability even as it tries to undercut it, US official says
- Daniel Kritenbrink, an assistant US secretary of state, says Beijing enjoys the opportunity ‘the international order provides but … takes actions that undermine’ it
- His remarks at conference on China and Global South draws rejoinders from panellists who say Beijing ‘understands the mood [of] the Global South better than the West’
China enjoys the best of both worlds, benefiting from the global stability that the United States has fostered even as it undermines that stability in areas where it suits its interests, a senior US State Department official said on Wednesday.
The comments by Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, made at the start of a two-day Atlantic Council conference on China and the Global South come as the People’s Republic of China and the US vie for influence among developing countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
“The PRC has itself benefited from the stability and the opportunity that the international order provides. But unfortunately, the PRC often takes actions that undermine those principles, rather than reinforcement,” Kritenbrink said, citing Beijing’s expansion into the South China Sea, economic coercion of smaller states and programmes opposing “universal” human rights.
“The PRC has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad,” he told the conference. “The PRC is advancing an alternative vision for global governance.”
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Panellists pushed back, however, including those from developing countries, arguing that the battle for influence is too often framed as a binary choice between Beijing and Washington – when the reality is more nuanced.