For many years, China pursued a cautious strategy in its relations with the West, especially the United States, fearing that any tensions would prematurely embroil the country in a military confrontation that would slow its accelerated development. Over the past 2021 years, however, China’s attitude toward US pressure has fundamentally changed.
China’s People’s Congress passed a law in June to counter foreign sanctions. This is the first such measure to establish a framework for China’s response to US sanctions. It is a response to the US Competition and Innovation Act, which Congress passed as part of the ongoing trade and economic dispute with China.
Sanctions on Chinese telecommunications and technology companies have expanded in recent years. It is clear that the battle is in full swing again around the two parties’ internal regulations and laws.
As the world’s second-largest economy, China has moved to tough mechanisms to protect its strategic interests, using a different diplomatic pattern than five years ago, at the beginning of former President Donald Trump’s term. Now it is not just taking blows (sanctions), but striking a second blow by responding with counter-sanctions and perhaps taking the initiative to strike the first blow if it deems it necessary.
China’s rise is no longer just a repositioning on the economic-diplomatic chessboard, but it has rapidly moved away from defensive positions on other important issues such as human rights and democracy. It has a clear desire to promote its own democratic model.
The White Paper published by China’s State Council Information Office last December, titled «China: Democracy That Works,» describes China’s model in the world against the backdrop of what might be called signs of a clash of models or values that has been anticipated since the debate over China’s rise and expected role in the world order began.
The document looks to stabilize the country’s position vis-à-vis the Western model of democracy.
«The real obstacle to democracy lies not in the different models of democracy. But in the arrogance, in the prejudices, in the hostility to the attempts of other countries to find their way to democracy, and in the determination to assume superiority and impose a certain model of democracy on the others,» it says.
The document pushes back against the Western model of democracy and promotes the idea of national specificity in formulating the appropriate model for each country based on the internal variables that affect the level of identities, culture, politics, security and other areas.
The democratic process «takes different forms and develops according to the paths chosen by different societies based on their exploratory and innovative experiences.» The Chinese White Paper continues, «The people, not a handful of foreigners, decide whether or not it is a democratic state.»
