Kerry Brown — 9DASHLINE

Best of 2023: China as a global actor

It was a busy year: the tenth anniversary of Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, the ongoing war in Ukraine and questions about China’s role therein, as well as the increasingly urgent Taiwan issue, are just a few examples of topics that have made it to the top of analysts’ and policymakers’ agendas in 2023.

We summarise some of our most-read pieces about China as a global actor, which also generated a lot of discussion and debate among our readers.

’We’re going through changes’ – What Xi meant when he spoke to Putin

Written by Dr Kerry Brown

In this context, the one positive Russia offers to China is that it does not belong to the Western bloc. Xi’s seemingly warm words to Putin are an acknowledgement that his enemy’s enemy is his friend.

Editor's Picks9DLMay 11, 20239DashLine, ’We’re going through changes’ – What Xi meant when he spoke to Putin, Kerry Brown, President Xi Jinping, China, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Moscow, geopolitics, Chinese elite, America, Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sino-Russian, China-Russia alignment, Beijing, autocratic norm, democracy, common destiny, Community of Common Destiny, community of common destiny for mankind, win-win, Belt and Road Initiative, Qing, Republican, People’s Republic, Winston Churchill, Second World War, Great Powers, UK, middle-income, sense of destiny, Western hegemony, multipolarity, Western bloc, NATO, Soviet, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, peace plan, nuclear weapons, ‘WE’RE GOING THROUGH CHANGES’ – WHAT XI MEANT WHEN HE SPOKE TO PUTIN, Xi Jinping, Putin, Ukraine, Nuclear, United Kingdom, US, WW2, WWII, Lau China Institute, Kings College London, Centro Studi Sulla Cina Contemporanea Summer School

Xi, the state, and war

Written by Maximilian Ernst

Hence, before looking for clues to Chinese foreign policy in the personalities of Chinese leaders, foreign policy analysts would be well advised to first direct their attention to the international level.

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In Conversation: Kerry Brown on “China’s World”

On one hand, there is a China that is complex, runs on different drivers depending on the issue one is talking about and is often poor at communicating, or resentful that it needs to communicate and do things that it sees everyone else doing without the need to explain themselves.

In Conversation9DLNovember 23, 20219DASHLINE, Kerry Brown, Xi Jinping, Trump, China, Asia, Japan, Korea, North Korea, Belt and Road Initiative, South China Sea, East China Sea, Russia, UN General Assembly, COP26, Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet Union, Peoples Liberation Army, PLA, Kabul, UK, Britain, Xinjiang, Australia, AUKUS, Vietnam, THAAD, Soft Power, Taiwan, Washington

Parallel Universes — Why Beijing’s celebrations didn’t leave the rest of the world in party mood

Written by Kerry Brown and Astrid Nordin

Exposed to scrutiny as never before, it will have to do better at speaking to the world than the bullying diplomacy of the ‘Wolf Warrior’ phenomenon witnessed over late 2020 and into 2021.

East Asia9DLJuly 15, 20219dashline, China, EU, US, United States, CCP, CCP100, Xi Jinping, G7, NATO, FBI, Beijing, Washington, London, Brussels, War on Terror, Muslims, Xinjiang, New Frontier, Build Back Better World, Communist Party of China, Wolf Warrior, Climate Change, Europe, Kerry Brown, Astrid Nordin