As China's global footprint expands, thoughtful analysis of the characteristics and effectiveness of its influence-building initiatives is essential to inform academic debates and policymaking. In Advantage China: Agent of Change in an Era of Global Disruption, Jeremy Garlick convincingly argues that in the Global South, “China's success has not happened by chance, but due to a unique set of strategies that the West does not pursue and attributes the West does not possess” (p. 2). He asserts, “In an era of global disruption, amid pandemics, climate change, wars and economic upheaval, these [strategies and attributes] are giving China an edge which has not been well understood in the United States and Europe” (p. 2). According to his analysis, through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China is promoting its own norms and is a catalyst for change in development economics. In his words, “…merely by introducing a framework for trade, investment, and cooperation that is distinctly non-Western and which does not adhere to the standard rules of what is sometimes called the ‘liberal international order,’ China has altered the global development landscape” (p. 149).
This book strives to serve as a wake-up call for the United States and the European Union to contemplate how to effectively respond to the BRI. In contrast with narratives in the West emphasizing the negative and exploitative aspects of the initiative, this book argues that China is promoting its positive ideational power through the BRI and successfully increasing its influence in the Global South. Garlick asserts the West is exaggerating China's weakness in the Global South and systematically overestimating its own strengths. He argues, “The West does not even grasp its own disadvantaged situation in the global marketplace of development” (p. 3).
The book makes a significant contribution to the literature on Chinese foreign policy in the Global South. It is clearly written and makes counterintuitive arguments with substantial policy implications. It effectively links domestic dynamics within China and success in the Global South. It argues that China's size, stable governance system and ability to generate a shared vision among its Han Chinese population, driven by its own historical experience with the century of national humiliation, serve as advantages in its approach to the developing world.
Advantage China is unique because it explicitly compares the strengths and weaknesses of China, the US and the EU in their interactions with the Global South in a balanced way. It leverages a wide range of Chinese, US and European secondary and primary sources to construct and support its arguments. Examining Chinese scholarly writings, it explores how China's foreign policymaking attempts to address contradictions and complexity in the international system. The book utilizes the BRI as an illustrative case study to examine China's strategy in the Global South. It succinctly but effectively compares China's use of BRI across regions in the developing world, including in China's neighbourhood (Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia) and the rest of the world (Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Pacific Islands). This comparative approach teases out nuanced similarities and differences in the BRI's effectiveness and reception between regions.
One particular strength of the book is its emphasis on how Global South countries’ past experiences with colonization and violence colour their contemporary views of great powers. Another is its focus on the ways the BRI is building positive legitimacy for China in many parts of the Global South. Views of China within the Global South are complicated and vary by country and region. This book illuminates some of the factors that drive those views by situating perceptions of China, the United States and Europe in a broader historical and conceptual context.
The most significant weakness of the book is that insights from the conceptual chapters about China's advantages, approach to contradictions, and focus on developing foreign policy for a complex international environment are not comprehensively addressed in the book's more empirical chapters. Readers would have benefited from a more thorough explanation of how those concepts played out in China's implementation of the BRI in regions across the Global South. That said, the lack of a more robust discussion of those issues throughout the book does not detract from the value of the work. The conceptual and empirical chapters make thoughtful, original and substantial independent contributions, and the concluding chapter effectively ties together the ideas and arguments of the book.
Overall, Advantage China is an excellent book with thoughtful insights about China's interactions with the Global South through the BRI. It provides a nuanced analysis of China's use of BRI to pursue its objectives in the developing world and recommendations for how the US and EU could respond to China's activities. Due to its macro-level approach to the topic of the BRI and its clear discussion of differences between the approaches of China, the US and the EU to the Global South, this book will serve as an important classroom resource. It provides a high-level overview of China's approach to the BRI and how it is operationalized in regions around the world. The book is especially relevant for undergraduate and graduate courses studying China's interactions with the Global South and the BRI, courses examining international relations in Asia, international political economy courses, and region-focused courses (e.g. Africa, Middle East, Latin America) analysing China's role in regions around the world. The book will also appeal to policymakers seeking to understand China's foreign policy and to formulate US and EU development policy. The book's comparative analysis of China's, the US's and the EU's approaches to the Global South provides plenty of insights for students, academics and policymakers to ponder as they strive to better understand China's rise.
Disclaimer
The views expressed in this review are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense, or the US Government.
