Wary of unpredictable US, middle powers turn to China

As the United States sees its standing as the world's dominant power eroded amid its war with Iran, China is pressing to expand its global influence. Xi Jinping has been meeting with a steady stream of world leaders, positioning himself as an alternative to the US-led international order.

The Guardian reported Thursday that middle powers are deepening ties with China, with Xi having received at least 17 foreign leaders this year.

The British daily said Xi is working to present his own alternative to the current international order, and that Washington's unpredictability is helping drive that effort.

The most recent examples came Thursday, when Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tariq Rahman held talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Hun Sen, the powerful president of Cambodia's Senate — though not a head of state — also met with Xi the same day.

William Yang, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the long list of world leaders traveling to Beijing to meet Xi "shows a growing recognition of China's expanding global influence."

Middle-power leaders who visited China this year were seen as seeking to build independent relationships with Beijing beyond their ties with Washington. The argument gains weight given that even traditional US allies such as Canada were among them.

Yang said China can use these visits "to highlight the alternative multipolar world order it has championed, while at the same time undermining these countries' trust in the United States."

Chinese state media have been drawing attention to the succession of foreign leaders visiting Beijing to meet Xi, framing the trend as a sign of China's rising stature.

In addition, China is seeking to position itself as a stabilizing pillar of the international order while also highlighting its role as a lender to lower-income nations.

Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, said invoking the principle that no country has the right to comment on another's internal affairs "may be part of Xi's larger plan to shape the international order." He added that "meetings with less glamorous leaders of less wealthy countries are central to this strategy."

He also said Xi is "shifting the balance of power away from the advanced democracies toward the Global South, with China as its leader."

The Guardian cautioned, however, that China's influence remains limited when it comes to actual international crises. While Beijing has cast itself as a mediator in truce talks related to the Middle East war, analysts say it has not played a substantive peacemaking role.