China’s growing influence in the world has been identified as one of the top global trends influencing the trajectory and development of other major trends relating to sustainable development. China’s relevance for civil society organisations (CSOs) is therefore also growing rapidly on a global scale. This means even organizations without a dedicated country program or a physical presence in China need to study and develop future skills and strategies to navigate the impact of Chinese foreign and development policies on their activities in other parts of the world. This includes leveraging the positive potential of Chinese financial contributions and technological innovations for developing countries, as well as countering rising threats to civic participation and human rights due to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s promotion of an authoritarian development model. This guide therefore takes as a starting assumption that both constructive engagement and principled advocacy efforts are required from CSOs in order to engage with China’s global impact.
Based on insights from internationally-operating CSOs (ICSOs) with very different histories of engagement with China, this guide is intended to provide strategic pointers and identify practical entry points for senior ICSO leaders to summarize the key themes and implications for our sector. This can help them think through the current strategies and capacities of their individual organizations and further develop future engagement and adaptation approaches, as well as strengthen the sector’s collaborative capacity to be better prepared in face of this major trend.
This guide identifies three types of recommendations for internationally-operating CSOs which are applicable to organizations of a range of sizes, structures, and operating models (i.e. not necessarily with a presence, office, team, or representation in mainland China itself):
- Overall cross-cutting strategy recommendations for individual ICSOs to strengthen their organizational capacity
- Overall cross-cutting strategy recommendations for strengthening sectoral collaborative capacity allowing better preparation and adaptation to the rise of global China
- Strategic pointers (trends and future perspectives) under four key sub-themes:
- Changes in Chinese investment and development finance under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
- China’s aspiration to become a global technology leader
- The internationalization of Chinese non-governmental actors
- China’s growing influence on global governance and the UN system
