China announced a new global initiative during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, called the Global Governance Initiative. It adds to the three ongoing, previously announced global initiatives on development, security and “civilisation.” The initiatives speak to an increasing Chinese confidence that its ideas will find global reception amidst the chaos generated by American President Donald Trump and flows from a general perception – heavily promoted by China’s own interlocutors – that the US and the rest of the West are in terminal decline.
The new initiative will attract attention, coming as it does amid questions about the continuing relevance of the United Nations and of the World Trade Organization. There are problems in these organisations, some of which are attributable to the US and China, but it is currently the US that gets all the brickbats while China’s “global initiatives” create the impression that it not only has nothing to do with causing any problems but is trying to fix them.