Taking the Initiative? Understanding China's promotion of 'Global Governance Initiatives'

This talk explores the recent 'global governance initiatives' turn in PRC foreign policy, where these platforms are promoted by Beijing as 'global public goods.'  There are now multiple Global Governance Initiatives on broad issues like security, development and human rights, alongside issue-specific platforms regarding data security and AI governance.  The talk explores the drivers for this rhetorical turn by PRC elites through a case study of Initiatives promotion across the UN Secretariat, with implications for how we consider China's rise. 

About the Speaker

Dr. Courtney J. Fung is Associate Professor in Security Studies in the School of International Studies at Macquarie University.  She is concurrently Non-Resident Fellow at LSE IDEAS; the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University; at Asia Society Australia, and at the Lowy Institute. She was a Fulbright scholar at Georgetown University in spring 2024. Her book, China and Intervention at the UN Security Council: Reconciling Status (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019) explains the effects of status on China's varied response to intervention and foreign-imposed regime change at the United Nations, and was shortlisted for the BISA LHM Ling Outstanding First Book Prize.

The ANU China Seminar Series is supported by the Australian Centre on China in the World at ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.