According to a recent report by the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, it appears that China is disseminating its governance structure and the ideology of its Communist Party to developing nations. This is being accomplished through training initiatives that are ostensibly part of a business academy.
The report indicates that the Chinese government sponsored 795 online workshops in 2021 and 2022, promoting the idea that authoritarian governance is crucial for economic growth. These conclusions are drawn from an analysis of more than 1,000 documents from the Academy for International Business Officials (AIBO), an educational entity operated by China’s Ministry of Commerce.
The website of AIBO portrays it as an institution focused on education, offering services such as business education, hosting conferences, training in human resources, and providing party education specifically for members of the Chinese Communist Party within the ministry.
The catalogue contains directives for Chinese embassies in numerous countries, primarily those emerging in the region known as the Global South, to solicit attendees for online seminars. As per the report, named “A Global South with Chinese characteristics,” over a span of two years, these events saw the participation of 21,123 individuals.
The papers also encompassed proposals for initiatives conducted by different university faculties and governmental research organizations, covering a wide array of subjects from national administration and law enforcement to the regulatory oversight of media and information. The report’s author, NivaYau, stated that while numerous nations engage in global outreach via training initiatives and sharing of experiences, the Chinese approach is fundamentally based on political ideology, which includes the centralization of governance and the economy.
In Yau’s statements, it was highlighted that each training session, irrespective of its focus, includes a distilled and simplified presentation of party ideology and organization, and their significant impact on the achievements of the PRC, referring to the People’s Republic of China. Yau emphasized that this approach is how choices pertaining to authoritarian governance are propagated, even within the most specific fields of study. Yau further added that the objective seems to be to in still in participants the notion that China’s success in surmounting economic hurdles is a result of its authoritarian political climate.
The report indicates that even though some training sessions delve into less ideologically charged topics like block chain technology and environmental conservation, they still carry potent elements of Chinese propaganda and diplomacy. For instance, a seminar conducted in June 2022, which focused on biogas technology, rural energy, and conservation, incorporated a discussion on China’s political landscape, foreign policy, and its efforts in combating COVID-19.
This session was facilitated by Wang Lei, who holds the position of Deputy Dean at the School of Government and is also a member of the party committee at Beijing Normal University.
A group of researchers conducted a review of several documents mentioned in the report. In one such document, it was revealed that AIBO had engaged the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), an institution at the ministry level under the State Council of the country, to conduct a seminar on June 2, 2021.
The seminar was aimed at disseminating the content, principles, and values encapsulated in “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China,” a compilation of the president’s speeches and writings.
According to the government document, the objective of the project is to provide senior advisors and cabinet members from developing nations, who are at the head-of-state level, with an in-depth understanding of China’s practices and capabilities in national governance. The focus is specifically on the methods of social mobilization and management employed in response to COVID-19 and the developmental challenges that the pandemic has brought about.
The CASS website reported an online seminar attended by 20 top advisers and scholars from six nations, including Pakistan, Ecuador, and Chile. Professor Wu Bo, a specialist in party building and Chinese Marxism, was among the speakers.
The Ministry of Commerce coordinated a media training seminar by the China International Communications Group, a Chinese Communist Party entity. This reflects China’s stringent control and sophisticated censorship of media.
Beijing is actively reshaping global narratives by influencing foreign media to cast China positively and sharing its sophisticated surveillance tech, used for citizen monitoring and dissent suppression. Xi’s strategy seems to focus on the Global South, aiming to establish an alternative international order to the U.S. led one. Amid strained relations with Washington and Western allies, China has been intensifying its connections with Global South nations.
Yau expressed with certainty that numerous countries in the Global South are keen to explore China’s governance model. Yau observed a global trend of polarization, where the Chinese alternative is being embraced fundamentally, leading to irreversible consequences. This could potentially ensnare countries across the Global South in Beijing’s international authoritarian project.
