Our picks: China watchChina’s Global Great Game | Why Is the West Imitating Beijing? | The Future of Sino-U.S. Proxy War, and more

Published 5 May 2021

·  Countering China’s Global Great Game

·  The World Might Want China’s Rules

·  The China Model: Why Is the West Imitating Beijing?

·  Australia Draws a Line on China

·  Chinese State-Backed Hacker Allegedly Targeted Russian Nuclear Submarine Designer

·  China’s Growing Nuclear Threat

·  How the US and EU Can Counter Digital Threats Together

·  Britain Set to Stockpile Metals for Electric Cars to Beat Chinese Threat

·  The Revenge of History

·  China Features Heavily in the Army’s Next Big Emerging Tech Experiment

·  The Future of Sino-U.S. Proxy War

Countering China’s Global Great Game  (Michael Sobolik, National Interest)
Washington’s instinctual response to compete with the Belt and Road Initiative dollar-for-dollar is a losing proposition that plays into China’s long game. But with an offensive framework, American policymakers could turn the tables and transform the BRI into an albatross for the Communist Party.

The World Might Want China’s Rules  (Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy)
Washington shouldn’t assume its values are more attractive to others than Beijing’s.

The China Model: Why Is the West Imitating Beijing?  (Niall Ferguson, The Spectator)
It is one thing to compete with China. I firmly believe we need to do that in every domain, from artificial intelligence to Covid vaccines. But the minute we start copying China, we are on the path to perdition.

Australia Draws a Line on China  (Keith Johnson, Foreign Policy)
Canberra’s had enough of trade embargoes and Chinese grievances—and is ready to draw a line.

Chinese State-Backed Hacker Allegedly Targeted Russian Nuclear Submarine Designer  (Fabienne Lang, Interesting Engineering)
The hacker apparently used a backdoor attack system.

China’s Growing Nuclear Threat  (Patty-Jane Geller and Peter Brookes, Heritage)
Beijing is revealing its grand ambitions through its unprecedented nuclear modernization programs, inserting more uncertainty and risk into an already challenging international security environment. These forces will enable China to improve its ability to coerce the United States and restrain response options. As a result, the United States must carefully consider the growing Chinese threat as it pursues its own nuclear modernization to ensure that U.S. nuclear deterrence remains strong.

How the US and EU Can Counter Digital Threats Together  (Harry I. Hannah, Atlantic Council)
The United States and its allies face significant and growing threats from Russia and China in “hybrid” and “gray zone” warfare, fought at least partially in the digital and information environments. The threats aren’t all the same: They range from Russia’s cyberattacks and electoral interference against Europe and the United States to China’s long campaign to dominate key technology sectors such as 5G and artificial intelligence.
While different in style, Russian and Chinese threats all seek to exploit gaps in Western cyber defenses and digital and information governance. These gaps exist because national policies, laws, regulations, and standards vary across NATO members and across military and civilian dimensions of the Alliance. As a result, to create effective defense strategy, NATO must recognize that the military threat environment is shaped by the civilian organizations that write these rules.

Britain Set to Stockpile Metals for Electric Cars to Beat Chinese Threat  (Alan Tovey, The Telegraph)
Move comes as fears mount that China is ruthlessly cornering the market in the rare earths needed for the EV revolution.

The Revenge of History  (Editorial, New Statesman)
China’s autocratic turn shows why the UK must end its dependence on the country for essential infrastructure.

China Features Heavily in the Army’s Next Big Emerging Tech Experiment  (Patrick Tucker, Defense One)
The Army’s connect-everything experiment is about to get much bigger, and looks across the Pacific.

The Future of Sino-U.S. Proxy War  (Dominique Tierney, Texas National Security Review)
Strategic thought in both the United States and China has focused on the potential for a Sino-U.S. interstate war and downplayed the odds of a clash in a foreign internal conflict. However, great-power military competition is likely to take the form of proxy war in which Washington and Beijing aid rival actors in an intrastate conflict. The battlefield of Sino-U.S. military competition is more likely to be Venezuela or Myanmar than the South China Sea. Proxy war could escalate in unexpected and costly ways as Washington and Beijing try to manipulate civil wars in far-flung lands they do not understand, ratchet up their commitment to avoid the defeat of a favored actor, and respond to local surrogates that pursue their own agendas.