How does China want the world to work? Beijing views the current global governance system as one that skews unfairly in favor of Western powers. China seeks to reshape the dynamics in international organizations in pursuit of its own goals, mimicking the multilateral foreign policy that the United States pursued during the Cold War. However, unlike the United States, China prefers to build economic partnerships instead of military alliances – such as through BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Agreement, or the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. How does China’s alternate vision for global governance differ from the United States’ and will it resonate with the rest of the world?

Olivia Cheung joined us in May 2025 to discuss the ways China wants to change the global governance system and how it engages with multilateral institutions.

Learn more about the speaker and watch the video here.

This interview is part of our Faultlines series that examines the strategic differences between the United States and China. The two nations differ in how they see economic, military, cultural, and governance issues, but was this always the case? By examining the view from both sides of the faultline we can piece together how we got here and where we’re going next.

China's Alternative Vision for Global Governance