Global China
About
From a potential “responsible stakeholder” to a “strategic competitor,” the U.S. government’s assessment of China has changed dramatically in recent years. China has emerged as a truly global actor, impacting every region and every major issue area. To better address the implications for American policy and the multilateral order, Brookings scholars are undertaking a two-year project—“Global China: Assessing China’s Growing Role in the World”—intended to furnish policymakers and the public with a new empirical baseline for understanding China’s regional and global ambitions.
The initiative will draw not only on Brookings’s deep bench of China and East Asia experts, but also the tremendous breadth of the institution’s security, strategy, regional studies, technological, and economic development experts. By tapping a range of resident and non-resident Brookings scholars, the project will assess the trajectory of China’s influence in Asia and other regions, as well as its growing influence on key issue domains and institutions.
Areas of focus will include the trajectory of China’s domestic institutions and foreign policy; strategic competition and great power rivalry; the emergence of critical technologies; East Asian security; China’s influence in key regions from Europe to Southeast Asia; and China’s impact on global governance and norms.
Themes

Domestic politics and foreign policy
How do President Xi Jinping’s personal ambitions and the centralization of power in the Chinese Communist Party affect China’s approach to foreign policy?

Domains of strategic competition
What are the implications of Chinese activity across various strategic domains — security, infrastructure, economic statecraft, and more — for the United States?

East Asia
How does China view its strategic requirements in East Asia as it expands its global influence and footprint?

Great powers
How is China navigating relations with other major powers?

Technology
China aspires to global technology leadership. Can it achieve its ambitions? What would the impacts be at home and abroad?

Regional influence and strategy
China now touches virtually every region in the world — how is China’s increasing involvement impacting South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and elsewhere?

Global governance and norms
From human rights to energy to trade and beyond, how is China approaching global norms and norm development?
Podcasts
Events
Contact
Anna Newby, Communications Director & Managing Editor, Foreign Policy Program
anewby@brookings.edu, 202-797-6083.