April 16, 2020
Same as It Ever Was: China’s Pandemic Opportunism on Its Periphery
While Washington and Beijing’s overheated rhetoric and mutual recriminations amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic are grabbing headlines, equally important is what has been playing out across China’s eastern and southern peripheries over the past several weeks. At a moment when the Chinese Communist Party has been touting the generosity of its approach to COVID-19, there has been a marked increase in the number of incidents between China and its neighbors. Beijing has used its naval and paramilitary forces as well as its increasingly sophisticated information operations to ratchet up tensions, probe responses, and see how much it can get away with.
This raises the question of what exactly China is up to. Has Beijing truly embraced a new approach of cooperation with its neighbors? Is it trying to take advantage of the COVID-19 mess to assert its interests more aggressively? Or is this simply an extension — albeit an opportunistic one — of its pre-pandemic strategy?
Read the full article in War on the Rocks.
More from CNAS
-
Commentary
Indo-Pacific Security / Energy, Economics & Security / Technology & National Security
Selling AI Chips Won’t Keep China Hooked on U.S. TechnologyU.S. policy should not rest on the illusion that selling chips can trap China inside the American tech ecosystem....
By Janet Egan
-
Will New Delhi-Beijing Move Beyond Friction Points? | Ex-White Official On India-China Reset
Video
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that India and China, as two major economies, must work together to bring stability to the global economic order. NDTV's Gaurie Dwi...
By Lisa Curtis
-
How Big Will China’s Nuclear Arsenal Get?
Commentary
China’s nuclear expansion is already feeding an arms race—a contest that is accelerating partly because the finish line remains unknown....
By Jacob Stokes
-
China Military Scholar Elsa Kania on the PLA’s Dramatic Modernisation
Podcast
Today we speak with Elsa B. Kania, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, about China’s military modernisation. How good is the People’s Liberation A...
By Elsa B. Kania
