China started to reap the fruits of its breakthrough policy, which it started with Den Xiaoping in 1978, in the 2000s, and as a matter of fact, after the global economic crisis[1] that started in 2008, it surpassed[2] Japan in 2010 to become the world’s second largest economy.[3] Beijing has risen to the top of the global supply chain with its growing economy in the following periods.[4] The situation in question has brought China’s efforts to develop an alternative to the “rules-based and liberal democracy framework international order” established on the basis of the United States (USA) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after the Cold War.
The competition in question has brought along a very important global polarization in a geopolitical and geostrategic dimension but on a geoeconomic basis. As a matter of fact, this rivalry is also called the “New Cold War” by many academics and analysts.[5] In this context, both actors do not want to be alone within the framework of this competition and try to acquire allies both regionally and globally. In this context, it can be said that the USA has allies such as NATO and the European Union (EU), which constitute the cornerstones of the liberal democratic order and have important roles in the international order as concrete outputs of the Western ideology.
For China, on the other hand, there is a more complex picture in terms of cooperation. Considering that the global system is based on the West, it is known that actors with different ideological stances or states aiming to challenge the aforementioned order face legitimacy problems and are touted as “disorder-breaking actors”.
As a matter of fact, states such as Russia and North Korea are actors that shape their foreign policy production processes on the basis of anti-Westernism. However, both the reason mentioned above, the Russia-Ukraine War[6] that started on February 24, 2022, and North Korea’s increasing Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and nuclear tests[7] create significant legitimacy crises for the mentioned states. This causes China to act more reluctantly at the point of building cooperation with the relevant states.
On the other hand, these states are also looking forward to the cooperation to be developed with China. As a matter of fact, in the context of the Russia-Ukraine War, Moscow needs Beijing’s alliance. Likewise, North Korea is a country whose isolation in the global system continues due to ICBM trials. At the same time, there is a strong United Nations (UN) pressure on Pyongyang. For this reason, the sanction decisions that are tried to be taken within the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) against North Korea face the veto of Russia and China.[8]
In addition to all these, the foreign policy production processes of these three states have a common denominator over their opposition to the West, the USA and NATO. However, it can be argued that due to China’s foreign policy that it is trying to build, especially within the scope of “peaceful diplomacy” and the cooperation it has implemented all over the world in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing tries to be careful in choosing an ally and tries to behave in a way that does not have an international legitimacy problem.
As a result, although states such as China, Russia and North Korea have a common foreign policy production process in terms of anti-Westernism, it can be said that Beijing tries to be much more careful in choosing an ally in line with its global goals.
This brings with it that Pyongyang and Moscow are more willing to build cooperation than Beijing.
[1] “JP Morgan Bond Chief Bob Michele Sees Worrying Echoes of 2008 in Market Calm” Consumer News and Business Channel, https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/09/recession-jpmorgan-bond-chief-bob-michele-sees-worrying-echoes-of-2008.html, (Date of Accession: 13.06.2023).
[2] “China Overtakes Japan as World’s Second-Biggest Economy”, British Broadcasting News, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-12427321, (Date of Accession: 13.06.2023).
[3] “The World’s Largest Economies”, World Data Info, https://www.worlddata.info/largest-economies.php, (Date of Accession: 14.06.2023).
[4] “China’s Dominance in Global Supply Chains”, The German Marshall Fund of the United States, https://www.gmfus.org/news/chinas-dominance-global-supply-chains, (Date of Accession: 21.06.2023).
[5] “Is the US-China Strategic Competition A Cold War?”, Atlantic Council, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/is-the-us-china-strategic-competition-a-cold-war/, (Date of Accession: 21.06.2023).
[6] “Ukraine in Maps: Tracking the War With Russia”, BBC, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60506682, (Date of Accession: 21.06.2023).
[7] “North Korea Resumes Launching Missile Tests. How Worried Should We Be?”, Time Magazine, https://time.com/6266737/north-korea-ballistic-missile-tests-2023/, (Date of Accession: 21.06.2023).
[8] “China and Russia Veto New UN Sanctions on North Korea for First Time Since 2006”, CNN, https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/26/asia/us-north-korea-united-nations-intl-hnk/index.html#:~:text=Russia%20and%20China%20on%20Thursday,develop%20nuclear%2Dcapable%20missile%20systems., (Date of Accession: 21.06.2023).
