New world era –- Russia and China versus the rest? Fareed Zakaria interview
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
One of his points is that as a status quo power, China naturally belongs with the rest of the world against Russia, even though currently they have chosen to stand with Russia.
“this is not just about a world of power politics. There is also the question of, how much have the liberal ideas, practices and institutions that have been built up over the last century, how much have they changed the world so that it’s not zero-sum? To what extent have we created a world of interdependence, commerce, capitalism, travel, contact, values, that mean that we shouldn’t just be applying this power political set of ideas to the world?” — Fareed Zakaria.
China, as a general principle, does not do that. It benefits enormously from international stability, from international order, even from international institutions. What it wants is to become powerful within them, so powerful, that you cannot violate its sovereignty. China’s number one principle for the last 20 years, and what it criticizes the U.S. for, is state sovereignty, the inviolability of state sovereignty. Which is why this whole business with Russia invading Ukraine has been so awkward for Beijing. So what they want is to grow powerful within the world as it exists.
You can see this in the fact that they want to become powerful in the U.N. They want to become powerful in the I.M.F. They want to become powerful in the World Bank. They don’t want to overturn these institutions.” — Fareed Zakaria.