Back

Does Covid-19 tip the scales in China's geopolitical ambition?

July 8, 2020
Related topics: 
International Relations
Asia
Geopolitics

Our senior fellows Marcus Freitas and Len Ishmael, both experts in Asian affairs, discuss the geopolitical ambitions of China in the current – Covid-19- context. During a webinar our experts address the following issues : 1 - China's use of crises to deepen and extend power and influence - looking at the financial collapse of 2008 using Europe as an example; 2 - Taking a look at the covid-19 pandemic - and how this has been used by China to influence external opinion - and how the backlash against China has also served to deepen nationalism back home, in Beijing; 3 - A wider look at how American allies and those in the Global South are choosing sides - or choosing not to; 4 - Some observations about the future.

Speakers
Marcus Vinicius de Freitas
Senior Fellow
Marcus Vinicius De Freitas is Senior Fellow at Policy Center for the New South, focusing on International Law, International Relations and Brazil, and is currently a Visiting Professor of International Law and International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, China. Previously, he was a Professor of The Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation in Sao Paulo, where he served as the coordinator of their International Relations Program from December 2012 until December 2013. He was president of the Sao Paulo Directorate of the Progressive Party, having run for vice governor of the State of Sao Paulo in 2010, where his party polled in third place with more than 1.2 million votes. He also served as the Administrative Director of the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Housing Co ...
Len Ishmael
Senior Fellow
Ambassador, Dr. Len Ishmael is a Senior Fellow of the Policy Center for the New South and a Senior Fellow and Distinguished Visiting Scholar of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She is the Global Affairs Advisor of the Brussels Diplomatic Academy and visiting Professor of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Mohammed 6 University, Morocco. Dr. Ishmael is a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on COVID-19’s Regional Task Force for Latin America. She is the former Ambassador of the Eastern Caribbean States to the Kingdom of Belgium and European Union, and past President of the 79-member African, Caribbean & Pacific (ACP) Committee of Ambassadors in Brussels. She is a former Director & Head of the Regional Headquarters of the United Nations Economic ...

RELATED CONTENT

  • “I like the moment I break a man’s ego.”
    Authors
    Helmut Sorge
    June 11, 2018
    Donald Trump, a golf addict with a self-declared handicap of 3, is not noted for any chess enthusiasm, although the game is a simulation of a battle, and filled with military terminology such as double attack, demolition, breakthrough, decoying, interception, blockade, and x-ray attack among others. The historic game is intellectual, structured, and logic. The object is to maneuver the antagonist’s king into a position from which escape is impossible. The two contenders - at times - ...
  • The Absolute Reality of the Unreal
    Authors
    Helmut Sorge
    May 3, 2018
    “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and smart” (Donald Trump on Twitter). A menace in 223 characters - an imaginary video game moving slowly towards the reality of Hiroshima. History on collision course with our future. No thought about victims, no word of destruction, just “you should not be partner with a gas killing animal, who kills his people and enjoys it.” The Commander in Chief of the Un ...
  • Quel rôle pour l’Afrique et l’Europe dans le monde qui se dessine ?
    Authors
    Sabine Cessou
    April 16, 2018
    La conférence organisée par l'Institut Montaigne et l'OCP Policy Center à Paris le 12 avril a abordé la question de l'investissement étranger dans une Afrique perçue à la fois comme une menace et un nouvel eldorado en Europe. "L’Afrique et l’Europe sont dans une même voiture, à  l’avenir elles peuvent aller très haut et très vite ou se fracasser contre un mur", a affirmé Jean-Michel Huet, consutant pour Bearing Point. Son regret : que l'Afrique soit un sujet encore très peu perçu pa ...
  • Radioscopie d’une émergence : l’Inde dans le monde à venir
    Authors
    Sabine Cessou
    April 13, 2018
    L’avenir de l’Inde a fait débat le 11 avril en présence de 110 personnes, lors des 5èmes Dialogues stratégiques, une rencontre biannuelle organisée à Paris par l’OCP Policy Center et le Centre HEC de géopolitique.  En 2050, l’Inde comptera 17 % de la population globale et aura le troisième PIB mondial. « Le ralentissement de la croissance en Chine n’occultera peut-être plus l’essor de cette grande démocratie », a noté Jacques Gravereau, président du HEC Eurasia Institute. Soulignan ...
  • North Korea's Business Dealings
    Authors
    Helmut Sorge
    April 6, 2018
    The young women sitting in the Olympic ice hockey stadium of Kwandong, South Korea, were dressed like a group of gorgeous stewardesses on an outing after graduating from flight school, or as if they were celebrating the survival of an emergency landing. They applauded in a very methodical fashion, a well-studied rhythm that their eternal Supreme leader Kim Jong-Un certainly did not learn at his Swiss boarding school “Liebefeld Steinhoelzi” near Bern, Switzerland. Who dares to confir ...
  • Download PDF
    China in the Mediterranean : An Emerging Presence
    Authors
    Alice Ekman
    February 22, 2018
    The Chinese presence in the Mediterranean is raising new questions among the diplomatic services of the Maghreb countries, as well as those of southern Europe. Indeed, over the past five years, China has been translating its national priorities with increasing activism in the Mediterranean. This activism can be summarised into three main areas: creating China-Southern Europe sectoral cooperation forums, investments in transport, energy and telecommunications infrastructure, and cond ...
  • Download PDF
    La Chine en Méditerranée : une présence émergente
    Authors
    Alice Ekman
    February 22, 2018
    La présence chinoise en Méditerranée fait l’objet d’interrogations croissantes au sein des diplomaties des pays du Maghreb comme d’Europe du Sud. En effet, ces cinq dernières années, la Chine décline avec un activisme croissant ses priorités nationales à l’échelle méditerranéenne. Cet activisme peut se résumer en trois axes principaux : création de forums de coopération sectorielle Chine-Europe du Sud, investissements dans les infrastructures de transport, énergétiques et de télécom ...
  • Download PDF
    ٢٠١٨ ملامح منعرج للإقتصاد العالمي : أوربا تستيقظ و اسيا ترسخ موقعها
    Authors
    Fathallah Oualalou
    February 21, 2018
    تعتبر 2018 بلا شك نقطة تحول في تطور الاقتصاد العالمي. أوروبا، بعد أن بدأت في الخروج من الأزمة في عام 2017 ، من المرجح أن تدخل مرحلة نمو قوي ومستدام بفضل الزيادة الهيكلية في الإنت°اج الصناعي، إضافة الى الانعكاسات الإيجابي°ة للمشروع الإصلاحي المؤيد لأوروبا موحدة الذي يحمله الثن°ائي الفرنسي الألماني. كما ان آسيا تستمر في تأكيد مكانتها كمحرك رئيسي للاقتصاد العالمي، حيث اصبحت ثلاثة بلدان من اسيا )الصين واليابان والهند( تنتمي لقائمة أكبر خمسة اقتصادات عالمية في عام 2018 . هذه التطورات تدف ...
  • Download PDF
    China’s Expanding Energy and Geopolitical Linkages with Central Asia and Russia: Implications for Businesses and Governments
    Authors
    Can ÖĞÜTÇÜ
    Mehmet ÖĞÜTÇÜ
    September 29, 2017
    This paper discusses the expanding links between China, Central Asia and Russia over the past quarter a century, most recently via the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in geopolitics and trade/ investment, as well connections in oil, gas and electricity. These links that continue to expand are likely to change the current economic, political and energy landscape beyond recognition. They are forging mutual economics dependencies and reducing security risks. The paper also assesses wh ...