An objective look at a China-led framework – China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI) | 22nd March 2023 | UPSC Daily Editorial Analysis

Context:

• In his keynote speech at the Lanting Forum in Beijing, the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs highlighted the recently unveiled Global Security Initiative (GSI) Concept Paper.
• The GSI is presented as a China-led framework that seeks to restore stability and security, particularly in Asia.
• Accordingly, he outlined five major pillars to effectively implement the GSI, i.e., mutual respect; openness and inclusion; multilateralism; mutual benefit, and a holistic approach.

Analysis:

• While the promotion of such principles is timely and critical, given the current shifts in the international geopolitical landscape at the expense of the developing world, a practical assessment indicates that the GSI is tailored more to be an empty narrative to compete with United States leadership and dominant U.S.-led concepts.
• The crux of the GSI’s first principle centres on the need for countries to adhere to the United Nations Charter and international law while facilitating relations based on mutual trust and respect for each other’s sensitivities.
• The second principle of the GSI lies in its openness to spearhead inclusive international engagements. While this position has been catalysed by the presence of U.S. treaty alliances in the Western Pacific, ironically, China also continues to engage in exclusionary policies in the East and South China Seas.
• The third principle focuses on bilateral and multilateral security cooperation and consultations to address issues of concern with the parties involved. While China plays a prominent role in various multilateral institutions, its understanding of consultation can be seen through the prism of asymmetric power relations such as constraining members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations from pursuing collective actions against Beijing’s assertion.
• The fourth principle highlights the GSI’s prioritisation of positive-sum cooperation, where parties involved can equally benefit.
  • The last principle of the GSI advocates a holistic approach towards traditional and non-traditional security threats, with an equal emphasis on eliminating any “breeding ground for insecurity”.
  • Throughout the years, the rise of China in a transitioning multipolar international system has resulted in power competitions with established and rising great powers (such as the U.S. and India, respectively) that seek to preserve and strengthen the established order.
  • Rather than being holistic, China’s engagements with these powers indicate a more narrowly defined goal for its power interests.

Way Forward:

• Therefore, China’s GSI is far from being a sustainable, equitable, and transparent solution to the growing insecurity that the world is facing, given an objective understanding of its track record in fulfilling its own principle requirements.
• Rather, the GSI indicates Beijing’s attempt to counter U.S. leadership through narratives, regardless of whether it can effectively operationalise such initiatives on the ground.