China’s Efforts to Build a Community with a Shared Future in the Neighborhood from the Perspective of Major-country Competition

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China， China has proposed and actively acted on the important vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind. In October 2013， President Xi Jinping put forward that “the building of a community with a shared future should be advanced in China’s neighboring countries”. The years afterwards have witnessed fruitful outcomes in this effort. Upon the backdrop of the intensified strategic competition among major countries in recent years， China’s neighborhood has undergone drastic and complex changes. These changes have， to some extent， posed many challenges to the community-building efforts and thereby affected the approaches， methods and directions of building a community with a shared future in the neighborhood.

New Changes in China’s Neighborhood Against the Background of Major-Country Competition

In recent years， China’s neighborhood has witnessed the following changes. First， using China’s neighborhood as key regions， the United States intensifies its efforts to suppress， block and contain China. The US forcefully advances its “Indo-Pacific Strategy”， elevates the level of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue （QUAD）， enhances security cooperation among the US， Japan， India， and Australia， and leverages on the QUAD security cooperation to shift the policy orientations of China’s neighboring countries， especially South Korea and Southeast Asian countries， thus beefing up strategic containment of China in the field of security. The US has also launched the “Indo-Pacific Economic Framework” （IPEF） and the “Chip4” among other mechanisms in an attempt to make economic and trade rules and shut out China in the high-tech industrial chains. In the field of security， the US continues to consolidate its dominated alliances and blocs， create economic and technological mechanisms and organizations that exclude China， thwart China’s normal economic cooperation with neighboring countries following the basic economic logic， and put countries under unrelenting pressure in the field of security.

Second， the Ukraine crisis has sent geopolitical shocks to China’s neighborhood. The Ukraine crisis has been dragging on for over a year since it erupted in February 2022 and is likely to continue， escalating and deescalating from time to time， for a longer period of time， with no prospect of a fundamental solution in the short term. The impacts of the Ukraine crisis are seen in the political， economic， and security rivalry between the Russian side and the side of the US and Europe， with ripple effects on international organizations and mechanisms such as the United Nations， the G20 and the East Asia Summit. Such rivalry across the board between Russia and the US and Europe has exerted tremendous impacts on international strategic relations and the stability of international order. These impacts are also felt in China’s neighboring countries. According to a survey report released by the Yusof Ishak Institute based in Singapore in February 2023， 82.9% of Southeast Asian respondents are “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” over the Ukraine crisis. As to the most serious impact of the Ukraine crisis on Southeast Asia， 58.3% of respondents hold that the crisis increases energy and food prices， 25.9% of respondents think that it erodes trust in a rules-based order and violates national sovereignty， and 5.2% of respondents believe that it worsens tensions between China and US.

Third， the international economic situation is facing considerable uncertainty. Since 2020， the world economy has suffered multiple shocks. The COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis have led to volatile fluctuations in energy prices and unstable food supply. The US-provoked trade war and tech war against China and the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes have affected many countries both economically and socially. Some countries have experienced capital outflows， currency depreciation and even riots. The instability of the international economic landscape and the uncertainty of financial markets are global events. China’s neighboring countries， which are not immune to the global impacts， suffer exacerbating economic challenges that may further escalate into political and social instability. For example， since 2022， Sri Lanka and Pakistan have undergone turbulence to varying degrees.

The Challenges to the Building of a Community with a Shared Future in China’s Neighborhood

As major power relations adjust and the situation in China’s neighborhood changes， they produce knock-on effects on the relations between China and its neighboring countries and further on the external environment and regional conditions for the building of a community with a shared future in the neighborhood. In the future， the community-building efforts will face the following difficulties and challenges.

First， it is difficult to address certain structural issues between China and some neighboring countries in the short term. With instigation of extraterritorial powers and changes in the political arena of neighboring countries， we cannot rule out the phased and complicated evolution of such issues as the South China Sea， the Diaoyu Island and the China-India boundary disputes. The lasting existence of multiple hot-spot issues is a long-term reality in China’s neighborhood. A realistic concern to be dealt with in the process of building a community with a shared future in the neighborhood is， on the one hand， to intensify effective control over hot-spot issues against such a background， and on the other hand， to relentlessly push forward cooperations with relevant countries in an effort to reduce the interference of hot-spot issues on the building of a community with a shared future， is a practical problem that needs to be solved in the process of promoting the building of a community with a shared future in the neighborhood.

Second， the US has set up obstacles for China’s efforts to advance the building of a community with a shared future in the neighborhood， which is demonstrated in multiple aspects. To start with， the US transmits the pressure of its strategic competition with China onto China’s neighboring regions， which， to some extent， brings China’s neighboring countries to bear higher pressure and worsens the regional environment for the building of a community with a shared future in the neighborhood. Moreover， in view of containing China’s growing regional influence， the US stirs up China’s relations with neighboring countries to prevent the unintended concrete outcomes of China-proposed initiatives in the neighborhood， thus negatively affecting the building of a community with a shared future in the neighborhood. Building such a community， which is in line with the shared interests of China and its neighboring countries， is a manifestation of deeper cooperations and closer ties of interests between China and its neighboring countries. But the US， from the perspective of major power strategic rivalry， attempts to politicize the building of a community with a shared future in the neighborhood and misrepresents China’s efforts to build such a community as a pursuit of geopolitical weight. The US also overstretches the concept of security in economic cooperation and infrastructure projects and other mutually beneficial cooperation related to China and neighboring countries’ joint efforts to build a community with a shared future. The US also resorts to distortion in international communication by hyping up China’s normal trade， investment， infrastructure construction cooperation with neighboring countries as the so-called security concerns， thus turning them into sensitive issues in bilateral relations and regional cooperation.