research briefs
Exploring the world of China’s global impact. Expert contributions on China’s global spatialities add depth to a growing understanding of China’s impact on the world.
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As an ambitious global AI player, China has signalled strong interest in shaping, if not making, the nascent global AI order. With the open ambition of becoming a global AI superpower by 2030, China is envisioning its leadership role in shaping the future of AI. We argue that China’s search for AI leadership is driven by not only domestic regulatory needs but also the desire to gain norm and agenda setting power. The current global governance architecture, however, has made it difficult for China to realize its global AI leadership.
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Narratives from both Chinese and African actors on the importance of the BRI projects for transforming Africa’s future eventually caught the attention of political and economic actors from both sides, who endorsed the idea that the BRI should extend to the African continent.
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16, 17, 16, 14: The number of participants in the 16+1 cooperation format, established in 2012 by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), changed a couple of times since 2019. Initially, it included 16 European countries in Central Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. In April 2019, Greece joined the mechanism, while Lithuania exited it in May 2021, followed by Estonia and Latvia in August 2022. The withdrawal of the three Baltic countries highlights the crisis 16+1 faces right now, as more and more members question its raison d’etre. However, it is still too early to write an obituary.
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Although China has seen some success in realizing its ambitious climate goals, the country’s achievements have come at a social and political cost that few democracies could—or should—tolerate.
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For a European observer, this selection seems strange, to say the least. Duisburg is an old industrial city on the Western periphery of the Ruhr Valley, struggling with the decline of heavy industry and structural change, and plagued by permanent financial worries. The puzzle is only solved when the city’s specific association with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and especially its prominent role for the operations of the Iron Silk Road, is included in the consideration. In 2013 the city of Duisburg was chosen by Chinese political leaders as the main European terminal of their intercontinental railway links – without conferring with city officials beforehand.
