John Lee
Pageantry versus principle. China delivers on the first and we offer the second. That is what senior politicians from the four Quad countries tell me.
The leaders of the US, Japan, India and Australia will meet in Delaware this weekend. In their own words, they will discuss how to advance an open and stable Free and Open Indo-Pacific in practical ways. For Quad countries, nations have equal rights regardless of differences in size or power. Competition and commerce will be fair and transparent. What’s not to like about these principles?
Earlier this month, China hosted 51 African heads of state for the Ninth Forum on China-Africa Co-operation in Beijing. Unlike the Quad meeting, Chinese summits with African, Southeast Asian and Pacific nations are elaborate and ostentatious affairs. The show is plainly designed to impress leaders of smaller nations and reinforce China’s place at the top of an emerging Sino-centric hierarchical order.
Surely fair principle will trump cynical pageantry. Who wants a hierarchical order where China reserves special rights and privileges for itself? As it turns out, quite a few ruling elites from developing economies willingly fall for Chinese pageantry and what lies behind it. Many of the world’s rich democracies might be hardening their views of China. But in much of the developing world, the reverse is occurring. Principle is not winning the day.
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