The US and China: Two Competing Visions
The US and China are competing for global influence, and Beijing’s pitch to the world is simple: Choose us, and through economic development, we’ll make you rich more efficiently. Plus, the pitch continues, we don’t care what you do inside your own borders; just don’t question what we do either, follow our rules, and we all prosper. This message is appealing to developing countries, which want more money, and non-democratic countries, which don’t want to be bothered about democracy and human rights. But even Western countries can be seduced by Chinese money and talk of major infrastructure projects.