Chris Cash, of the China Research Group, provides insight into the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Security Initiative and argues that the United Kingdom should keep a watchful eye on its development.
The Global Security Initiative (GSI) is a nascent diplomatic and security initiative laid out earlier this year by Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that offers an alternative to the currently dominant security landscape championed by liberal democratic nations. In this new Explainer for the Council on Geostrategy, titled ‘What is China’s Global Security Initiative?’, author Chris Cash explores what few details of the GSI are currently available in an attempt to unpack it.
You can read the Explainer here.
Chinese policymakers feel that whilst the UK, Europe and US are preoccupied with Euro-Atlantic geopolitical concerns, a window of opportunity has emerged to tout the GSI as a vehicle to ensure the stability needed for economic recovery and development.
Chris Cash
He argues that there are four primary reasons for the formalisation of the CCP’s geopolitical agenda:
- Opportunity: the CCP believes that free and open nations are otherwise distracted by Russia’s war against Ukraine.
- Threat: AUKUS, the Quad and the potential formation of a type of ‘Indo-Pacific NATO’ have the CCP worried about the involvement of free and open nations in their immediate region.
- Image: the CCP is hoping that the GSI will help to rehabilitate its image in the eyes of the world after being criticised for its inability to punish and condemn Russia for its renewed aggression against Ukraine.
- Values: the CCP hopes to use the GSI to delegitimise the current world order led by the liberal democratic nations and to promote its own vision in line with its ‘inevitable rise’.
You can read the Explainer here.
Mr Cash suggests that the government of the United Kingdom needs to observe the GSI closely as more details emerge so as to be ready to counter any dangerous narratives the CCP attempts to push through its utilisation. He additionally says it is important to bolster our cooperation with existing allies and partners to coordinate an international response to the GSI, but also to engage potential new partners who may be receptive to the GSI.
HM Government does not need to put forward a security framework as ambitious as the GSI. However, the open international order will only hold for as long as a majority of nations believe it is working for them.
Chris Cash