China’s multipolar world order must prove it can be peaceful
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- China’s June white paper calls for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” alongside “universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation.”
- The article argues that multipolarity is becoming easier to imagine as middle powers hedge among several centres of power.
- It says the central challenge for the emerging order is not political convergence, but sustaining coexistence without assuming that power diffusion will naturally produce stability.
China’s preferred vision of the international system now rests on two ambitions placed side by side: an “equal and orderly multipolar world” and “universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation.” Beijing brought many of its principles together in a June white paper on global governance and outlined how its Global Governance Initiative could put them into practice.
The timing gives the language added weight. World leaders are due to gather in New York this month for the 81st United Nations General Assembly, held under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation.” Yet the most difficult word in China’s formulation may no longer be “multipolar.” It may be “orderly.”
equal and orderly multipolar world
A multipolar world is becoming easier to imagine. Middle powers are increasingly hedging rather than choosing one side, seeking room to bargain among several centres of power. But the spread of power does not naturally bring order with it.
universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalisation
The post-Cold War era was sustained in part by the expectation that deeper economic integration would narrow political differences. Francis Fukuyama gave that belief one of its best-known expressions. Today, the fading confidence is not only that history has ended, but that history is moving toward a single political destination.
The emerging order therefore faces a different problem. It is not convergence, but sustained coexistence. China’s proposed multipolar system will have to demonstrate that a world with several centres of power can remain peaceful as well as more equal and inclusive.
Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation
About this summary
Originally published by South China Morning Post. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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