1 Interpreting Li Qiang’s messaging at the UN General Assembly and in New York
Li Qiang in New York
Sept. 23
Chinese premier Li Qiang said during a high-level meeting on the global development initiative on the sidelines of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the PRC “will not seek new special and differential treatment in the current and future negotiations of the World Trade Organization.”
The following day, PRC commerce vice minister and international trade negotiator Li Chenggang said at a press conference that China remains the world’s largest developing country. He added that China “has always been and will always remain part of the Global South, standing together with other developing nations.”
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Special and differential treatment (SDT) is a WTO provision designed to support the development needs of developing countries, especially the least-developed nations. On market access, developing countries can assume lighter obligations than developed countries, such as making smaller tariff reduction commitments or enjoying longer transition periods for implementing new rules. Developing countries are also entitled to preferential measures from developed members, including special trade preferences, technical assistance, and capacity-building support.
The PRC previously used its “developing nation” status to use SDT to secure looser obligations in more than 150 areas, including tariff reductions, implementation of grace periods, subsidies, and anti-dumping rules. SDT allowed China to delay the opening of its financial and telecommunications markets for decades after it joined the WTO, as well as rise to become a global manufacturing powerhouse.
Sept. 25
Li Qiang met with U.S. executives and academics in a closed-door meeting in New York, according to The Wall Street Journal. Li likened the U.S.-China relationship to a marriage, noting that “there are disagreements between husbands and wives, but they still stay close,” according to Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, who attended the meeting.
Sept. 26
Li Qiang delivered a speech at the General Debate of the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Noteworthy parts of his speech include:
- Li said that the UN was founded at the end of World War II and talked up the international organization’s importance in the post-war global order.
- Li called for “solidarity and cooperation” among nations. He said that “solidarity lifts everyone up, while division drags all down,” and called for practicing “true multilateralism.”
- Li said that the world has “entered a new period of turbulence and transformation,” with “unilateralism and Cold War mentality” resurfacing and humanity coming once again to a crossroads. He then highlighted Xi Jinping’s initiatives like “building a community with a shared future for humanity” and the four “global” projects (Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, the Global Civilization Initiative and the Global Governance Initiative).
- Li said that the PRC has “acted all along” as a “staunch defender of world peace and security,” a key promoter of “global common development,” and an active practitioner of “civilizational exchange and mutual learning,” and a responsible participant in tackling global challenges.
- Li said the PRC is committed to green and low-carbon development and has built the “world’s largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system.”
- In concluding, Li said that the PRC “stands ready to work with all members to uphold the standing and authority of the UN,” advocate greater representation and voice of developing countries, and work with the UN to establish a China-UN Global South-South Development Facility and provide it with $10 million in budgetary support.
Trump at the UN
In a speech to the UN on Sept. 23, President Donald Trump lobbed several criticisms at the international body:
- Ineffectiveness in resolving global conflicts
- “What is the purpose of the United Nations? The UN has such tremendous potential… All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter, and then never follow that letter up. It’s empty words — and empty words don’t solve war.”
- Encouraging terrorism
- “Now, as if to encourage continued conflict, some of this body is seeking to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state… Instead of giving in to Hamas’s ransom demands, those who want peace should be united with one message: release the hostages now!”
- Promoting uncontrolled migration
- “Not only is the UN not solving the problems it should, too often, it’s actually creating new problems for us to solve. The best example is the number one political issue of our time, the crisis of uncontrolled migration… The UN is funding an assault on Western countries and their borders. In 2024, the UN budgeted $372 million in cash assistance to support an estimated 624,000 migrants journeying into the United States… The UN also provided food, shelter, transportation, and debit cards to illegal aliens… on the way to infiltrate our southern border.”
- Pushing a climate hoax
- “I’m telling you that if you don’t get away from the ‘green energy’ scam, your country is going to fail. If you don’t stop people that you’ve never seen before that you have nothing in common with, your country is going to fail.”
- Rejection of globalism
- “The entire globalist concept of asking successful, industrialized nations to inflict pain on themselves and radically disrupt their entire societies must be rejected immediately, and it must be immediate.”
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Trump’s “America First” approach and skepticism about globalism saw the U.S. significantly reduce funding to the UN and withdraw from certain UN agencies like UNESCO during his first term. While the cuts and withdrawals were reversed by President Joe Biden, Trump would reinstate them in his second term and withdraw from other international organizations and agreements like the WHO, the Paris Climate Agreement, and UN agencies like UNESCO, UNHRC, and UNRWA.
Our take
1. At a glance, Li Qiang’s speech at the UN General Debate appears to be broadly in line with the UN’s values, particularly global peace, development, and solidarity. However, Li’s remarks are actually fully aligned with the CCP’s latest propaganda campaign that was rolled out with celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the “victory of the Chinese people’s War of Resistance against Japan and the World Anti-Facist War” in Beijing. As we previously analyzed, the CCP is using the propaganda campaign to advance its push for global hegemony (see here, here, and here).
Through Li’s UN speech and the CCP’s post-Beijing parade propaganda campaign, the Party makes several deceptive claims and insinuations:
- Li and the CCP imply that the United States is abandoning the post-WWII international order that the PRC has helped to “defend,” and has become a serious “disruptive” force on the world stage (“unilateralism and Cold War mentality are resurfacing, the international rules and order built over the past 80 years are under serious challenge, and the once-effective international system is constantly disrupted”). In reality, the Trump administration is still interested in preserving and leading the rules-based international order, but is distancing the U.S. from the UN and other international bodies partly because it is aware of the CCP’s sustained efforts to hijack and subvert those entities. President Trump’s “America First” approach is an attempt to rebalance U.S. priorities towards domestic concerns, not a rejection of U.S. hegemony and the world order that it has presided over the past eight decades. Therefore, Li and the CCP’s jibe at the U.S. is a form of “confession through projection” — everything they are accusing Trump and the U.S. of doing to undermine the post-WWII global order is exactly what Communist China itself has been doing.
- Li and the CCP’s promotion of “true multilateralism” is a form of Party doublespeak. Beijing’s idea of “multilateralism” or “multipolarism” sees the CCP leading a “united front” of nations to challenge U.S. hegemony and eventually create a world order (the so-called “community with a shared future for humanity”) dominated by CCP and its pernicious values.
- Li and the CCP seem to be supportive of supporting developing nations, particularly with the PRC’s effort to establish a “China-UN Global South-South Development Facility.” However, the $10 million pledged for the initiative is paltry compared to what the U.S. spends to help developing countries through the UN each year (estimated $4 to 5 billion), and seems more like a token gesture rather than a sincere move.
2. Li Qiang’s announcement that the PRC “will not seek new special and differential treatment in the current and future negotiations of the WTO” appears to be made with ongoing Sino-U.S. trade talks in mind. By renouncing new SDT, Beijing is hoping to appease the Trump administration and other Western countries who have repeatedly called out the PRC over unfair competition, and hopefully avert an escalation of trade tensions that could worsen the deterioration of the Chinese economy.
The PRC’s pledge to not seek new SDT, however, appears to be a delaying tactic and not a genuine abandonment of China’s developing country status or the associated benefits. Notably, commerce vice minister Li Chenggang said a day after Li Qiang’s SDT remarks at the UN that China remains the world’s largest developing country. Beijing could be hoping to wait out the Trump administration by paying lip service and making less consequential “concessions,” before reverting to form should subsequent U.S. administrations that are less confrontational towards the CCP take power. The Party is used to and doctrinally abides by struggle for survival and dominance at all costs, and has no qualms with making contradictory statements and gestures to gain any possible advantage over its adversaries.
3. Li Qiang likening the Sino-U.S. relationship to a “marriage with disagreements” is the rehashing of an old trope portraying bilateral ties as symbiotic and indispensable. For instance, then-vice premier Wang Yang said during a U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in July 2013 that “the U.S.-China economic relationship is somewhat like a marriage: we live on the same Earth, we are interdependent, sometimes we quarrel and have disagreements, but we must increase understanding, build trust, and nurture a shared foundation for life.” By revisiting this trope with American executives and academics, Li and the CCP are likely intending to reassure them about the state of U.S.-China affairs, generate optimism, and dissuade them from exiting the China market, even as Beijing itself seeks to undermine and isolate the U.S. on the global stage.
Li’s “marriage” remarks, however, could find less purchase today as compared to earlier reassurances. Since taking office, Xi Jinping has made it clear that the CCP is no longer “hiding strength and biding time,” but is prepared to challenge the U.S. for global hegemony through “great power diplomacy.” The U.S. and its allies, as well as a growing number of countries, have also recognized that the CCP is a serious threat to them and the world order — Beijing confirmed its “no-limits friendship” with Moscow after Russia invaded Ukraine; has behaved aggressively towards its neighbors; is in the process of modernizing and building up the PLA to become a “world-class” military by the middle of the 21st century; and has long engaged in “united front” and other influence operations in numerous countries.
That being said, the U.S. and the PRC are unlikely to fully decouple in the short term as America is still in the progress of reshoring and “friendshoring” manufacturing, and China continues to dominate global production. But Beijing is undoubtedly concerned about the state of Sino-U.S. relationship over the middle to long term, and will do whatever it can in the interim to delay decoupling and U.S. “containment” of the PRC.
2 CCP’s hegemonic ambitions gain ‘theoretical backing’ with Xinhua think tank’s new report
On Sept. 27, Xinhua Institute, a think tank of state mouthpiece Xinhua, released a report titled, “Theory on the Development of Civilizations — Building a New Vision of Civilizations with Development at the Core” at the International Academic Symposium on Xi Jinping Thought on Culture held in Guangzhou. Xinhua and other official media later issued commentaries promoting the report.
The report calls for the creation of a Chinese-style theory of civilizational development (as an alternative to “Western modernization” and “Western paradigm”) and upholds Xi Jinping’s “community with a shared future for mankind” as “China’s solution” to the problem of civilizational development.
The nearly 22,000-character report is divided into four chapters:
i) “The Contemporary Value of the Theory on the Development of Civilizations”
- This chapter argues that human civilizational progress is being obstructed with the world seeing a surge of “deglobalization,” intensifying geopolitical rivalry, the prevalence of the “clash of civilizations” theory, and deficits in global governance.
- The chapter argues that Chinese-style modernization is a new path that breaks from Western-centrism, with development as the core concept of civilization.
ii) “The Practical Basis of the Theory on the Development of Civilizations”
- The chapter cites Chinese examples in “material civilization, political civilization, spiritual civilization, rule of law civilization, ecological civilization, and “building a community with shared future for mankind” to advance its theory of “Chinese-style civilization” as a model for development.
iii) “The Internal Logic of the Theory on the Development of Civilizations”
- The chapter lays out four internal rules of Chinese-style civilizational development, namely, “independence and self-reliance,” “diversity and symbiosis,” “people-centered approach,” and “reform through innovation.”
iv) “The Practical Enlightenment of the Theory on the Development of Civilizations”
- The chapter offers four guidelines to help human civilization address systemic challenges in the 21st century, namely, “putting people first,” “upholding fundamentals and pursuing innovation,” “openness and inclusiveness,” and “harmony and coexistence.”
v) Conclusion
- The conclusion argues that Chinese-style civilizational development “offers the world an Eastern approach that transcends binary oppositions and tackles thorny global issues,” offers “win-win co-existence through cooperation,” and “lays a value foundation for building a community of shared future for humanity.”
Our take
Xinhua Institute’s “Theory on the Development of Civilizations” report (henceforth referred to as the “civilization development report”) appears to be part of the CCP’s “global governance system” propaganda campaign. This campaign is in turn part of its broader post-Beijing military parade messaging, which we assess to be an effort to emphasize Xi Jinping’s importance to domestic and global development to justify his taking a fourth term at the 21st Party Congress in 2027.
1. The civilization development report critiques so-called Western-centric models of progress — such as “clash of civilizations” and “institutional confrontation” — as sources of global instability. Meanwhile, it advocates a “Chinese-style,” “development-centered” paradigm that emphasizes mutual learning, diversity, and shared prosperity. Drawing on Chinese philosophical traditions and contemporary initiatives like the Belt and Road, the report positions the PRC’s approach to development as a “public good” for humanity, countering “deglobalization,” “protectionism,” and “cultural hegemony.”
On one level, the civilization development report is an indirect criticism of the Trump administration’s “America First” approach, or more accurately, a caricatured view of what “America First” entails. This suggests that the CCP feels very threatened by a U.S. that prioritizes domestic matters and is willing to decouple from the PRC to protect its national interests.
The report also appears to be the CCP’s attempt at obliquely rebutting and defending against the growing global awareness of a distinction between China (and the Chinese people) and the CCP. Notably, the report lumps the CCP’s “achievements” (Belt and Road Initiative, poverty alleviation, and the four “global” projects, etc.) together with those of Imperial China as though they are a singular heritage when this is far from the truth in many regards. For one, the Party considers itself to be reigning over a “new” China and Chinese people instead of continuing the civilizational tradition established by the previous dynasties and the Republic of China. Moreover, the Party rejects authentic traditional Chinese culture and history as part of its adherence to Marxism-Leninism, and has long sustained efforts to destroy, distort, and reappropriate them, from the violent opposition seen during the Cultural Revolution to the concept of “Sinicized Marxism” that takes the trappings of Chinese culture as a medium for inculcating communist ideology.
The report uses much rhetoric to promote the CCP’s development paradigm. But an observation of China today shows what the adoption of “Chinese-style modernization” and civilizational development will bring — a socialist, techno-totalitarian regime presiding over pervasive corruption, huge inefficiencies, massive human rights abuses, and other systemic deficiencies of the CCP dictatorship.
2. The civilization development report’s promotion of Xi Jinping’s “community with a shared future for mankind” and other pet projects appears to be an attempt to uphold and elevate his theories and “achievements” in domestic governance as a model for global governance. In doing so, the report essentially grants Xi the stature of a “civilizational development innovator” and “trailblazer in governance,” as well as creates theoretical justification for Xi to seek perpetual reappointment as Party boss.
3. While the civilization development report is critical of “West-centrism,” this does not mean that the CCP will not continue to court and co-opt Western and foreign think tanks and experts to advance its propaganda and domination agenda. In fact, the CCP will likely try to get as many Western and foreign scholars as it can to endorse its report and promote “Chinese-style modernization” and civilizational development.
Aside from pushing external propaganda, having glowing statements from foreign exports allows the CCP to better promote the “civilization development” propaganda domestically. Beijing would be looking to strengthen nationalistic sentiments to stabilize a Chinese society that is increasingly skeptical of the CCP regime amid a worsening economic downturn and as failed governance initiatives pile up.
