Towards a 'New Era'? China's Multilateralism Push and South-South Cooperation

This paper examines a recent push for safeguarding multilateralism by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Content analysis of Chinese policy documents and diplomatic communiqués delineates how amidst a contemporary crisis of multilateralism, the PRC is increasingly attempting to portray itself as a defender of the existing system of multilateral politics. Carrying forward multilateralism and strengthening global governance structures have consequently become key features of Chinese narratives on external relations. Close analysis of these trends however reveals that they comprise a defensive stance against US unilateralism and the weakening of existing multilateral frameworks rather than a strong promotion of new multilateral initiatives. In parallel, recent years have witnessed a more proactive Chinese stance on international development cooperation. In particular, the 2021 publication of a PRC white paper on international development underlines the growing importance of Chinese aid to the ‘Global South’. In contrast to the multilateralist image promoted on the world stage however, these development finance flows rely heavily on bilateral channels – both in absolute terms and relative to the share of multilateral financing in other states’ aid budgets. Analysis of PRC contributions to established institutions of multilateral development finance – such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – as well as to newer, ‘Southern’ financial institutions – such as the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB) or the New Development Bank (NDB) – highlight the continued preference of the PRC to engage in ‘South-South cooperation’ on the bilateral level. Together, these trends establish the emergence of a Chinese minimalist multilateralism in recent years. Locking in gains in existing agreements thus provides a rationale for a new, defensive stance on the part of the PRC in an international institutional landscape at risk. Such multilateralism promotion however does not translate into increased multilateral development finance. Addressing North-South development divides via a primarily bilateral approach consequently poses a challenge to multilateralism in the coming years. This is particularly the case during a period when the legitimacy of international institutions remains weakened by global trends of unilateralism and zero-sum foreign policy. Examination of China’s multilateralism push since 2017 adds nuance to several strands of international relations (IR) literature. On the one hand, debates surrounding the PRC’s engagement with international order have spawned a varied scholarship on China’s status as a revisionist or a status quo power. In particular, the format of China’s ‘opportunistic multilateralism’ is further expanded upon in the context of a crisis of the multilateral order. On the other hand, the establishment of new multilateral development banks in the mid-2010s has allowed for a growing body of scholarship to emerge that juxtaposes the institutions of the Washington Consensus with an incipient ‘Beijing Consensus’ on international development. The interplay of China’s defensive multilateralism promotion with its strong reliance on bilateral foreign aid helps us to reassess the validity of such narratives.