Expanding Chinese Political Influence

According to Phillip C. Saunders, China has a range of motives for building political influence with countries in various regions of the world.

The first is to isolate Taiwan as the global competition with Taiwan for exclusive diplomatic recognition is a zero-sum game. And countries potentially susceptible to financial enticements from Taipei to switch diplomatic recognition invariably receive special attention from Beijing.

The second is to protect Chinese interests from adverse international actions. The prototypical example is China's effort to prevent the UN Human Rights Commission from considering resolutions critical of its human rights conditions. Other examples include Beijing's successful efforts in exempting developing countries from binding obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and in organizing opposition to Japanese efforts to join the UN Security Council.

The third is to advance Chinese diplomatic goals. China's campaign to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the late 1990s illustrates its efforts in using political influence to achieve specific policy objectives. Since 2004, Beijing has also sought to persuade countries to declare China a "market economy" not subject to stringent anti-dumping actions under WTO rules.

Beijing has also practiced what Saunders called "ricochet diplomacy" (China's Global Activism: Strategy, Drivers and Tools, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University Press, Washington DC, October 2006), or using declarations by small countries to press large trading partners to recognize China as a market economy. For example, Singapore's and Malaysia's declarations of China's market economy status in May 2004 were used to press other ASEAN states to follow suit, which they did at the China-ASEAN summit in Laos in November 2004. China is using its recognition as a market economy by 37 countries to press the European Union for a similar status.

The fourth is to limit Japan's international goal. Among other things, China supports the US-Japan security alliance so long as it restrains Japan. But Beijing also fears that the alliance might play a negative role in efforts to achieve Taiwan unification. Indeed, Japan's power and economic presence in Asia are seen as obstacles to greater Chinese regional influence.