Why China Is the World’s Most Effective Opposition Party

Imagine the world as a single political system with the US as the incumbent. In this universe, China is the challenger. It’s not trying to dismantle American power. Instead, it is positioning itself as a rival source of authority.

Beijing is adopting the tactics of a global opposition party, argues a new paper by Hannah Bailey of the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy & Technology and Todd Hall, director of the China Centre at the University of Oxford. This isn’t a new approach, but Washington’s current behavior is making it much easier to execute. Just this week, China reportedly played a role in pushing for a ceasefire in the Iran conflict. As tensions escalated, Beijing — Tehran’s biggest trade partner — worked behind the scenes to encourage it to adopt a less confrontational stance in Pakistan-mediated talks.