International Forum on Democracy: US-China relations are key to the future of the world order

March was a month of global discussions on democracy. Two weeks ago in Beijing, at the second International Forum on Democracy as a common human value, around 300 politicians and scientists from more than 100 countries and regions discussed the right of each country to choose its own model of democracy. China believes that its economic and political model is the best for its development, but that each country must find its own way to organize its economy and politics.

Since 2013, China has been a world leader in the UN in launching initiatives to improve economic globalization, for fairer global development, for indivisible global security, and for a new world order that prioritizes the interests of humanity over the geopolitical interests of great powers, while the latest global civilizational initiative calls on all countries to be tolerant of countries with different cultures and political systems and to refrain from imposing their own values or models on others in the name of democracy, as this destroys the essence of democracy.

This could be a message to America, which considers its type of democracy to be the perfect model for the international order and other countries, while labeling those countries that do not follow this arrogant Washington policy as autocratic and dangerous for the international order and a threat to the Western system of free trade and the rule of law.

The second International Forum on Democracy strongly opposed this relatively new trend of dividing the world into autocratic and democratic states because this path leads to the creation of new economic and military blocs, reduces the number of neutral countries, and increases the chances of bloc military confrontations.

Already after 2017, US-China relations moved out of that happier phase when US presidents led policies of integrating China into the global economy and world governance. Today, America is working on the economic and strategic suppression of China.

Last year, it adopted several laws that are hostile to China, economic globalization, free markets, the interests of American capitalists, but also the economic interests of the European Union, South Korea, and Japan.

The Biden administration overestimates its own power to decide on the deglobalization of China and the forms of China’s involvement in the global economy. The future of economic globalization depends on China as much as it does on America. Both countries are the main pillars of today’s global economy, and China, like the US, has the power to decide how deeply it wants to be globalized. Since 2000, China’s index of exposure to the world (trade, technology, and capital) has been falling, while the world’s exposure to China is increasing.

In the Indo-Pacific, America is establishing new political and military alliances and even flirting with NATO expansion in that direction to make the region, Washington explains,’open, democratic, peaceful, and in accordance with international law’. The US plans to supply Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines, while China’s goal is an agreement that Southeast Asia will become a nuclear-free zone.

American strategists seriously overestimate China’s willingness to take over the US position in the world order while underestimating China’s achievements in developing global infrastructure, eradicating poverty, results in the fight against Covid-19, and efforts of Chinese peaceful global diplomacy that have strengthened China, as well as the stability and prosperity of the world.

The words ‘dangerous China’, which today in the West must be paid homage to before any discussion about China, have been sent into the world to obscure the facts about China.

There are numerous differences between America and China. China does not aspire to the end of economic globalization and Western neoliberalism nor views the US as an opponent, but rather as a market competitor.

China does not rely on geopolitical doctrine to understand the world and shape its relations with other countries. It has not waged global or regional wars to control the geographical features of other countries to expand and secure its prosperity and strategic superiority, nor has it competed with other countries over territories and regions. There is no concept such as ‘Chinese geopolitics’. The Chinese narrative is not geopolitical; it speaks of global cooperation and ‘common development’.

US-China relations are key to the story of the future of the world order, and conflict between America and China is not an option now, nor will it be for a hundred years.

Both powers have a moral duty to change the world for the better, and for that, they must coexist and cooperate. China and America impress each other in many ways, regardless of political differences and economic wars, and could find ways to ease tensions in relations and strengthen cooperation, especially as their bilateral trade is currently reaching new records, as recently reported by the German Economic Institute.

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