Global China
Assessing China's Growing Role in the World
The global implications of China’s rise as a global actor
In 2005, a senior official in the George W. Bush administration expressed the hope that China would emerge as a “responsible stakeholder” on the world stage. A dozen years later, the Trump administration dramatically shifted course, instead calling China a “strategic competitor” whose actions routinely threaten U.S. interests.
Both assessments reflected an underlying truth: China is no longer just a “rising” power. It has emerged as a truly global actor, both economically and militarily. Every day its actions affect nearly every region and every major issue, from climate change to trade, from conflict in troubled lands to competition over rules that will govern the uses of emerging technologies.
To better address the implications of China’s new status, both for American policy and for the broader international order, Brookings scholars conducted research over the past two years, culminating in a project: Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the World. The project is intended to furnish policy makers and the public with hard facts and deep insights for understanding China’s regional and global ambitions.
The initiative draws not only on Brookings’s deep bench of China and East Asia experts, but also on the tremendous breadth of the institution’s security, strategy, regional studies, technological, and economic development experts.
Areas of focus include the evolution of China’s domestic institutions; great power relations; the emergence of critical technologies; Asian security; China’s influence in key regions beyond Asia; and China’s impact on global governance and norms.
Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the World provides the most current, broad-scope, and fact-based assessment of the implications of China’s rise for the United States and the rest of the world.
Praise for Global China
“Put simply, no international relationship will be more consequential in the twenty-first century than that of the United States and China. Responding to this pressing need, the Brookings project—Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the World—provides both unprecedented breadth and depth in the evaluation of China’s actions, and their implications for U.S. interests and values.”
—John R. Allen, president, the Brookings Institution
“If we expect to successfully counter the threats that China poses to U.S. economic and national security, we must first understand the complexity of the challenge, and then develop short- and long-term strategies that are comprehensive and multilateral. This book effectively underscores the most serious issues that lawmakers must consider in dealing with China’s rise, and provides a number of noteworthy recommendations going forward.”
—U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner, chairman, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
“China’s transformation from a regional actor to global power and geopolitical rival will have profound implications for the national security of the United States, our partners, and our allies. Leveraging the insights of an impressive array of experts, this volume provides a clear set of recommendations designed to ensure that the United States can effectively contend with a rapidly shifting global environment.”
—U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
“For as long as I can remember, the breathless pace of change in China meant you had to see it firsthand, on a regular basis, to make sense of political, economic, and social developments. Global China provides that perspective to get past the unfortunate tendency to simply admire the problem, helpfully identifying comparative advantages and vulnerabilities brought by Beijing’s expanding interests, making it a ;welcome tool for strategists and policymakers.”
—David Stilwell, former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs