America, China and the Evolving New World Order

On Thursday, President Xi Jinping of China is meeting President Donald Trump at the White House. The United States and China are in significantly different places and the world increasingly fragmented and multi-polar since he last visited the White House to meet President Barack Obama in 2015. As the American and Chinese leaders meet, the most consequential question is: who is shaping the international order, and according to whose principles and rules? The answer may be more nuanced than many expected: while the U.S. remains the world’s most powerful country, China is emerging as an architect of that order.Beijing is creating institutions, proposing diplomatic initiatives, establishing technological standards and offering infrastructure to countries across the world. But its influence extends beyond diplomacy. China offers developing countries alternative paths to prosperity, mobilizing its technological champions as sources of power. Rather than replicating the American system of military alliance and security guarantees, Beijing is building networks of trade and alternative financial institutions. China is also promoting a new vocabulary of international affairs—one that is deli...