China is reclaiming its over two millennia-long influence as a global center of trade, culture, and power after a period of decline under colonialism, thanks to economic growth, diplomacy, and strategic partnerships, positioning itself as a key shaper of the emerging world order
For over two millennia, China was a dominant global actor. It enjoyed influence over a period from the rise of the Qin (221–206 BCE) to the collapse of the Qing dynasty (1636–1911 CE). In the second century, Emperor Wu opened the Silk Route, facilitating cross-continental trade and cultural exchanges. One of the largest overland trade routes spanning 6,400 km, it connected China to the Middle East and beyond.
Zhongguo, or the Middle Kingdom, implied China’s status as the global cultural, political, and economic center. One of the most quoted Hadiths, the Prophet‘s sayings and traditions, illustrates China’s significance as a centre of education in the seventh century. Chinese texts were among the sources of knowledge Arabs acquired during the peak of the Islamic Golden Age, from the eighth to the 11th century. The Arabs learnt the paper-making technique from the Chinese and used it to boost mass education.
China has had a deep civilization imprint far beyond its shores. China’s inventions compass, gunpowder, paper, and printing, had a profound impact. The Chinese language and literature found their way to places such as the Arab world. The Arab advancements in astronomy and calendar systems contributed to China’s progress and cultural development. Arab settlers in China promoted science.
China remained a major power until the 1840s when the British ended its regional dominance by prevailing over it in the Opium Wars of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Other major global powers carved out territories in China as the last Chinese dynasty collapsed in 1911. Chinese leaders have since been determined to reclaim China’s position as the center of the world.
Sun Yat-sen, the first provisional president of the Republic of China (1912), advocated revitalizing the Chinese nation when the Chinese state was weak and unable to play a global role. In the 1930s and 1940s, the civil war between Communists and Nationalists further weakened China. The Chinese appeared poised for a role in the new international order post-Second World War. But the Communists took power after the civil war in 1949 and rejected it.
The Communists tried to create an alternative global order. It seemed possible when newly independent former colonies endorsed Premier Zhou Enlai’s Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. They made the principles the basis for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the 1960s as a counterweight to Western-dominated global governance. In the following decade, Beijing reestablished ties with the US. China returned to the international system in the 1970s. It was soon admitted as one of the five permanent United Nations Security Council members.
China opened in the 1980s and 1990s. It sought an increased global role after Deng Xiaoping succeeded Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China. Deng introduced market reforms, encouraged foreign capital and technology. He oversaw economic reforms, propelling China’s growth and global reach in the late 1970s and 1980s. China joined the International Monetary Fund, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the Asian Development Bank.
In the early 1990s, Beijing embraced multilateralism. It signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (1992), the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (1996), and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1998). In the noughties, Beijing assumed a greater role in global governance. China became the world’s second-biggest economy, surpassing Japan in 2010. Over the next decade, it established the Shanghai Cooperation Organization comprising China, Russia, and Central Asian states.
President Xi Jinping has sought a bigger role in managing global affairs since becoming the Chinese Communist Party General Secretary in 2012. He has called for more shared control of global governance. He has underlined the need for China to ‘lead the reform of the global governance system with the concepts of fairness and justice.’ Xi wants to transform global institutions to reflect Beijing’s values and priorities. In an increasingly multipolar world, China can potentially fill the void that the US is leaving by violating the rules it claims to champion.
One of the world’s best militaries has been a hallmark of China’s reemergence as a major power over the past two decades. China launched its global infrastructure development Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 to revive cross-continental exchanges. It has been exporting soft power through initiatives such as the ‘Hundred Schools Project‘ to promote Chinese language education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and familiarise it with China to boost friendship. As many as 171 schools in the UAE offer Chinese language courses to 71,000 students.
In November 2024, the Inter-Civilizational Communication and Global Development Forum in Beijing included a sub-forum on China-Arab civilization exchange. Dignitaries, scholars, and students from over 10 Arab countries and China attended the sub-forum, underscoring the historic cooperation. They discussed ways to enhance cultural exchange as part of efforts to build a shared future and contribute to global peace and development.
Cultural exchange and understanding have been promoted through the translations and publications of classical and contemporary Arab and Chinese literary works. Syrian poet Adonis and Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz’s works are among the 100 works published in China. Works of Chinese writers such as Lu Wenfu, Tie Ning, and Liu Zhenyun have been translated into Arabic. In April-May 2024, 70 Chinese publishers, writers, translators, and officials representing 80 Chinese publishing houses participated in the 33rd Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.
China has emerged as a global actor from a regional power over the last few decades, relying on economic statecraft—from the South Pacific to South and Central Asia, West Asia, and Latin America. By 2023, Chinese investments in Africa under the BRI had surged to over US$700 billion, as China increased its influence through its infrastructural might. China has built towers in Nairobi and ports across the continent.
The Chinese foreign affairs minister has travelled annually across the continent since the 1980s to reaffirm ties. In January 2025, Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Namibia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad, and Nigeria, with Africa emerging as ‘a potential conduit’ for China’s geopolitical ambitions. China has expanded its media footprint by partnering with African outlets to promote its development and governance model, and Beijing is a provider of assistance.
China has expanded its cultural, diplomatic, and military presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, invested heavily in energy, infrastructure, and space industries, surpassing the United States as South America’s largest trading partner. President Xi Jinping announced a $9 billion investment credit line for the region at a summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Beijing in May 2025.
In July 2024, decades after Israel supported the Hamas precursor to counter the secular nationalist Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Hamas and Fatah, the largest PLO group, signed a declaration in Beijing on ending the years-long rift to strengthen Palestinian unity. The declaration was signed as the US took flak for rolling out a blood-soaked red carpet for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited the US despite presiding over the genocidal war in Gaza.
A day after the inking of the declaration, Netanyahu was greeted with a standing ovation and cheers when he addressed a joint meeting of the US Senate and House of Representatives. It was the record fourth time a foreign leader was given this. British leader Winston Churchill made three such speeches.
The Hamas-Fatah deal was a major boost to China’s role in the Middle East, where the West has spawned many of the problems, and the ambition to be a dominant global actor. It was another feather in its cap after Beijing brokered the Iran-Saudi normalization pact in 2023. The US’s refusal to course correct and its unqualified support for Israel against the Palestinians has since been shot in the arm for China in the region as it seeks to create a new world order on the back of its growing power. Israel and the US have sought to deepen the Iran-Saudi conflict to the detriment of the region.
China’s diplomatic successes in the Middle East enhanced Beijing’s stature as it seeks to reassert its influence on the global stage. America’s policy of continuing financial and diplomatic support for Israel to massacre Palestinians, mostly women and children, has, meanwhile, gravely undermined what the West calls the rules-based world order to China’s advantage. It would only enhance China’s role in the Middle East and the wider world.
By Sameer Arshad Khatlani for My Pluralist.
