In the midst of debates in the early 1950s about the possibility of a “Chinese advance in Asia”, Britain’s then opposition leader Clement Attlee commented in Parliament that “They [the Chinese government] have 603 million people to look after. Surely that is enough for any government”. This thought comes to mind again in the midst of another round of debate about the Chinese Party-state extending its influence overseas.
Today’s debate follows the economic rise of China over recent decades, and the more recent growth in tensions between the US and China across politics and society, the economy, and foreign and security policy. As US Vice President Mike Pence’s put it in his 4 October speech, we are now in “an era of great power competition”.
In this context, debate over China’s intentions overseas is likely to intensify in the wake of the publication by the Hoover Institution at Stanford of a report put together by a raft of eminent China scholars. The report addresses what it calls “the growing challenge posed by China’s influence-seeking activities in the United States”, influence which the authors characterize as a threat to the US.