Partner, Rival, Or Threat? China In The 21st Century – OpEd
China is a vital international ally, yet people distrust it and view it as a strategic competitor in the global arena. The twenty-first century requires policymakers to handle their threefold nature, which includes being friends to some people, while others view them with distrust and still others consider them enemies. The basic understanding of China's position does not account for multiple factors which guide its behaviour and disregards how various geographic areas respond to its political measures.
China demonstrates its economic power through its role as a business ally to countries across the world. The Belt and Road Initiative dedicated billions of dollars to construct infrastructure projects which span across Asia, Africa, and specific European regions to develop ports and railways, industrial parks and power plants that multiple countries lacked the resources to construct independently. The completion of these projects results in public disagreements, yet they create improved transportation systems, which drive faster urban growth. The extensive Chinese consumer market functions as a global supply chain foundation, which draws exporters to establish operations within the country. China proves its value as a helpful international partner through its joint efforts to combat climate change, develop renewable energy, and protect public health.
The Southeast Asian partnership operates through specific operational methods which it uses. China continues to hold its position as ASEAN's top trading partner, while its economic presence in the region supports the development of the area. The economic success of governments depends on China's ongoing economic growth, according to their current understanding. The bonds between China and Indonesia strengthen through cultural exchange programs, academic partnerships, and tourist travel between the two nations. The Chinese capital, Beijing, demonstrates successful poverty reduction and technological progress, which makes its development approach attractive to others.
The two organisations maintain a partnership, but their relationship exists under the weight of intense mutual suspicion. The South China Sea and Taiwan Strait strategic ambiguity creates doubts about what Beijing plans to do in the future. The growth of naval military capabilities, grey-zone operations, and broad territorial assertions between neighbouring states has resulted in rising diplomatic conflicts. The combination of debt dependence issues, unexplained loan conditions, and trade deficit problems creates significant concerns for countries which depend on Chinese financial support. The security of technology remains a subject of controversy because China faces allegations about its surveillance activities and its data theft operations, which have raised concerns about its potential to endanger national sovereignty.
The economic benefits of Chinese investment do not stop nations from handling their relations with China through careful consideration because they understand how financial connections affect national security. People around the world maintain distrustful views toward Beijing because economic requirements and strategic monitoring activities exist as two opposing forces. Southeast Asian nations face an urgent need to welcome Chinese investment while they work to prevent excessive reliance on Chinese capital.
Security issues represent the main area where people view China as their enemy. The Chinese government demonstrates its desire to transform regional power structures through its fast military development, its aggressive border assertions, and its sophisticated cyber warfare capabilities. China supports an authoritarian system of government, which differs from liberal democracy because it presents itself as a different political system in international relations.
The global competition for trade leadership, technological advancement, and institutional power between China and the current dominant nations has become more intense. The United States and its allies view China as their main strategic rival because its actions work to undermine the current security framework. The adversarial view of Southeast Asia becomes more intense because of ongoing maritime conflicts and military actions, which create conditions for accidental conflicts that would destabilise the entire region.
The upcoming difficulties will emerge because of the need to unite these three different representations. Nations need to maintain a precise equilibrium between their involvement with China and their ability to defend themselves because they should work together on shared interests, but maintain control over their national independence and defence capabilities. The risk of dependency exists at a high level because China's markets, technology, and loan programs create a situation where countries might lose their ability to make independent decisions. The Asia-Pacific region faces an essential security challenge because Taiwan and South China Sea disputes generate threats which threaten global stability.
The ideological difference between democratic and authoritarian systems of government creates obstacles for international collaboration because it makes it unclear how China's increasing power will affect established global standards. The entire system of global governance faces a critical threat because China's participation in UN and WTO institutions will determine whether these organisations will gain strength or lose their established frameworks.
The international community faces an intricate paradox because China has risen to power. The organisation functions as a vital partner which requires our cooperation, yet creates distrust because of its unclear operational methods while working against our current system of power. These identities exist together as separate identities which cannot be distinguished from each other. The Chinese government faces multiple challenges because different nations try to unite China under one rule, which results in wrong assumptions about its diverse nature and produces negative effects on their strategic objectives. The imperative requires us to work together on shared interests, defensive strategies, and strategic deterrence methods, which will stop aggressive actions from happening. The twenty-first century will bring China a dual nature, which policymakers need to understand because of its complex role in the world. States need to understand how China presents itself as three different entities because this understanding will determine their ability to maintain global stability.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own.
References
- Sun, W. (2026). Decoding Australia’s ‘China threat’: Geopolitics, knowledge formation, and public opinion. Journal of Contemporary Asia.
- Tran, H.-C. (2026). Brokerage in the Black Box: Swing States, Strategic Ambiguity, and the Global Politics of AI Governance. arXiv.