China aggression will be aimed to destroy the liberal world order

How does China envision its longed-for post-Western world order?

Dams: ‘Beijing is aiming for a multipolar world order in which countries refrain from interfering in the internal politics of other countries. In which the notion of ‘universal values’ is viewed with scepticism, and where the United States is just one of the players.’

‘In this new world order, democracy and liberalism are no longer a universal ideal, but only hold sway over certain parts of the world. The liberal world order will transform into a regional order.’

‘Autocratic forms of government will no longer be rejected out of hand, and the rules in this multipolar world order will mainly be set by China and its partners.’

China wants to play a leading role in this post-Western world, but without getting drawn into all sorts of conflicts?

Dams: ‘Beijing is convinced that the United States will succumb to the tension between the military, diplomatic and moral responsibilities it has assumed in the world and the care for its own people.’

‘China therefore does not aspire to the same kind of hegemony that the United States once enjoyed, but has a different kind of agenda. Beijing wants to be a military superpower mainly in South-East Asia, and in other parts of the world it wants to mainly have economic influence and to offer countries an alternative to the United States.’

Why is Xi so opposed to the Western world order from which China has also benefited so much, for instance by being part of the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

According to Xi, the liberal international order is based on arrogant Western standards, such as democracy as the ideal political system. These values and standards were first imposed on many countries by the European colonial powers and subsequently, and often hard-handedly, by the Americans. This has mainly benefited the United States and other wealthy capitalist nations. But now China has the power to influence and shape that order to its own liking. So it’s not so much about chucking out the world order, but recycling it.