Host/Producer: Ezgi Toper
Guest: Abhishek Bhaya
Craft Editor: Nasrullah Yilmaz
Production Team: Afzal Ahmed, Ahmet Ziya Gumus, Mucteba Samil Olmez, Khaled Selim
Executive Producer: Nasra Omar Bwana

TRANSCRIPT

ABHISHEK: China is weaving a new multipolar web attracting global talent, expanding trade, pushing for sustainable tech and reforming global governance. And quite an irony, the country once known for building the Great Wall is now reaching out to the world while the US under Trump 2.0 is busy building modern walls in trade, tariffs and travel.

EZGI: You’re listening to “In the Newsroom” and I’m Ezgi Toper. In this podcast, we have conversations with colleagues and experts that go beyond the headlines. 

Over the past month, China has made a series of striking moves. Beijing announced it will forgo the benefits of a developing country at the World Trade Organisation, rolled out a new K-visa program to attract global talent, and is being urged to host a major United Nations campus.

Analysts say these steps reveal Beijing’s long-term strategy: to position itself as a global innovation hub and redefine its role as a great power in the 21st century.

In this episode, we break down China’s long game with Abhishek Bhaya, Senior Editor at TRT World Digital and an expert on China’s foreign relations.

ABHISHEK: These recent past few months or actually past few years have been a whirlwind for anyone who's following China. Until very recently, I've seen the China story unfold not as a distant power, but as a neighbor reshaping our shared world.

So basically, two weeks ago at the UN General Assembly, Chinese Premier Li Qiang announced that China would forgo the special and differential treatment that gives benefits to the developing countries at the World Trade Organization. China being the largest, you know, developing country so far, it has been getting those benefits for all these years, all these decades. But, now that it is a $1.19 trillion dollars economy, you know, it has become the second largest economy in the world after the US. Although China has not given up its developing country status exactly entirely, what it said was that it is stepping away from the perks and the benefits that it gets as a developing country and so that other developing countries can benefit from them.

EZGI: If you’re curious to learn more about why Beijing made the move now, and how it could affect the balance of global trade, we recommend listening to one of our recent ALOUD episodes, titled “Why did China give up developing country benefits?” 

But now back to our interview. The move by China was welcomed in many capitals but unsurprisingly it was dismissed in Washington as long overdue.

ABHISHEK: Washington for many years and particularly under Trump 2.0, has been insisting that China shouldn't get developing privileges, especially while also imposing 60% tariffs on Chinese, you know, goods and electric vehicles and semiconductors. So, Beijing's move effectively takes that talking point off the table.

EZGI: Abhishek is recalling the start of 2025, when you might remember US President Donald Trump announced a tariff plan on imports from countries around the world. The average US tariff rate jumped from 2.5 percent to over 18 percent with a “baseline” 10 percent tariff on all imports. But the US singled out China in particular with over 100 perfect tariffs, which China responded to with its own high tariffs, setting the world in a panic over a potential trade war. The two superpowers have been on a “tariff truce” since August 11 but it's set to end around November 9. But Abhishek says the US moves to counter China may actually be having a different effect. 

ABHISHEK: Ironically this pressure is having a reverse effect. It has pushed China to double down on self-reliance. Beijing is now investing heavily in homegrown semiconductors, AI renewable energy and green manufacturing.

China's transformation has been stunning lately. It now produces and exports more electric vehicles than any other country led by firms like BYD and cattle. In 2025, one in every three EVs sold globally were made in China.

China has also been leading the green transition if you have seen recent reports. It is now the world's largest producer of solar panels, wind turbines, and electric batteries. Over 30 percent of global renewable energy capacity is based in China. And that's quite a number. And it is also on track to hit its carbon peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. These are the goals that many developed countries said decades later, but China has a track record of, you know, having policies, set a target and then achieving it, such as its poverty alleviation target.

EZGI: China launched its anti-poverty campaign in late 2013 with the goal to eliminate extreme rural poverty by the end of 2020. And by February 2021, President Xi Jinping announced that it had achieved its target.

In fact, according to data by AMRO, over the past four decades China has lifted more than 800 million people out of extreme poverty. The speed and scale of this is unparalleled in world history, even surpassing the poverty goal set by the United Nations a decade before the deadline. 

And now, that same model of setting and hitting ambitious goals now shapes China’s foreign policy, as Abhishek explains.

ABHISHEK: It is a deepening partnership with the global South through, you know, BRI, but also through other multilateral organisations such as BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, so while Washington is trying to contain China, it is actually motivating Beijing to diversify, innovate and reach out further. In a way, the US is unintentionally accelerating China's global strategy. 

EZGI: Another way China is advancing its global strategy is through its K-visa programme, which launched on October 1, 2025 as a new initiative aimed at attracting global talent, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Abhishek points out that the timing of the program is critical as it comes just after Trump crippled the US’ own specialty employment visa, the H-1B.

ABHISHEK: The timing, as you would have seen is quite, you know, critical because it comes at a time when the US has started putting curbs on its you know H-1B visas. So this new visa that China has introduced could be a real magnet for young professionals. and global talent, because it doesn't mandate them to have any sponsorship from a Chinese employer as it was required earlier. So in an era when Trump has hiked H-1B visa, you know, fees to $100,000 effectively putting a curb on new H-1B visas, basically China's message is clear: they're saying come innovate here.

China has also been rolling out the welcome mat more broadly. They have extended the visa-free access to tourists from more than 70 countries. So, tourism is kind of booming in China if you see, you know, YouTube and social media, you're seeing a lot of these foreigners, influencers taking advantage of this, you know, visa free access visiting China. I saw the reports that mentioned that about more than 38 million foreign visits have been reported in the first half of 2025, which was up 30 percent from last year, which makes China as one of the most visited destinations this year. Which is quite, quite an impressive, you know, a turnaround because China was always seen as a very closed country to the foreigners. 

EZGI: As China opens up more to the world, Abhishek reports that leading economists are calling for it to also play a role in rebalancing influence at the United Nations.

ABHISHEK: As the United Nations turns 80 this month, it was founded in 1945, October 24th, so critics say the post World War II body is overdue for reform, noting that the balance of global growth has shifted decisively towards Asia and the BRICS economies, led by China, rather than the United States and Europe. Leading economists like Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University have actually called for China to host a major United Nations campus. 

JEFFREY SACHS: Right now if you look at where the UN is located, it’s basically the United States and Western Europe and one organisation in Nairobi. I’m really asking for China to open a huge campus for the UN, it could be Beijing or Shanghai, but a huge campus.

The idea is to make the UN more multilateral, not concentrated only in the West. It would symbolise Asia's growing centrality and China's readiness to shoulder more global responsibilities from development and mediation to climate action. And in many ways, China is perhaps already walking that path through many of the multilateral initiatives.

EZGI: And this didn't happen overnight. I mean, how did we get to this point? What previous big moves have helped China become the global player it is today?

ABHISHEK: You're perfectly correct. So China's rise didn't happen overnight. It has been a series of, I believe, smart, calculated, and, and visionary leaps in just a few decades, China transformed from a closed economy into the world's second largest. So, one of the key initiatives that China launched recently was the Belt and Road Initiative, which was launched in 2013, and it has been central to this journey in the recent decades. It has connected more than 150 countries with over $1 trillion in investment from railways, infrastructure in Africa, to ports and power plants in other places, other countries such as Pakistan. Also, China has been slowly and gradually building other institutions which provides an alternative to the already existing Bretton Woods organisation like IMF and World Bank. So, if you're aware it has already set up something called the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which is a multilateral investment finance company, and it kind of works like the IMF does for the rest of the world. It has more than 80 odd members, and it is financing several development and infrastructure projects through this bank.These are not much reported outside of China for very strange reasons.

EZGI: Yeah, why do you think that is?

ABHISHEK: I believe there is a slant towards coverage. There is a prism through which we have become used to watching or seeing China when we are outside China and personally this was a reality check for me too because even when I got an opportunity to work and live there. And I lived there through the COVID-19 period and the kind of news that I would see coming out from outside and the experience that I had while living in China and being a part of media, so I know what was going on.

Certain organisations have made a point that nothing could go right in China, perhaps. So China would always be portrayed in a particular light, but the reality is certainly much different.

One has to understand again with its economic heft, China is also one of the most populous countries and now the largest trading partner of more than 80 or 90 percent of the world. So, when it is setting up a vision which it calls a global initiative, it will have impact, it will have repercussions across the globe. 

EZGI: Over the last few years, China has rolled out four interconnected initiatives, on security, development, civilisation, and governance, to present itself as a global leader offering an alternative to Western-led systems. These include reforming global governance structures to give the Global South more voice in institutions.

ABHISHEK: These initiatives kind of lay out the vision that China has and when you see there are a few things constantly repeated in all of these initiatives is basically they want cooperation, win-win cooperation as they call it, and peaceful coexistence. No intrusion or kind of violation of the sovereignty of any other country. So, all these issues are somehow relevant in the global issues that we see around us, be it the Middle East, you know, the Palestine Israel crisis or the Russia-Ukraine war, or the tariff war that is going on. So, together I believe these initiatives position China as a builder of bridges offering cooperation instead of confrontation.

What is it that China is selling through its Belt and Road initiative, for instance. Construction, infrastructure, roads, railways, you know, supply chain. Why? Because that's what China has done, for the past 30, 40 years to build its strength, right? And when you are selling infrastructure, building bridges, building, you know, railway system. When do you build those? At peace time. When there is a war, you don't build bridges, you don't build, you know, highways or infrastructure because they will be destroyed. So think of it like that, China has a stake in peace, global peace.

Who's selling the weapons? Which country has the military industrial complex? So, which country has a stake in war? Think of it. So that's that's another perspective to look at that

EZGI: Ah, that’s a really good point.

ABHISHEK: Is China really warmongering? Or when China is saying that look, I'm here to build roads and railways and infrastructures and ports and hospitals and schools, that they actually want to have peace, because these things can only flourish when there is peace.

EZGI: Hm, that was a great point. So with this intention in mind, with this cooperation in mind, what are some of the challenges that China is facing on the world stage?

ABHISHEK: Right. So there's a term that I really like. It's called the Thucydides trap. It describes what happens when a rising power threatens to overtake an established one like we see in the context of China and the US today. Historically, that tension often leads to conflict. And that is China's biggest external challenge, managing its rise without sparking a clash with the US. 

The US-China relationship, you know, sits at the heart of everything when it comes to the rivalry here, these are the two biggest players on the planet economically, technologically and geopolitically, but in recent years, Washington has moved from seeing China as a competitor to treating it as a strategic threat. In fact, one of the recent acts, you know, that it kind of introduced a few years back, is called the National Defense Authorization Act. It restricts American investment in Chinese tech firms. The 2024 TikTok law, you know, classifies Chinese apps as national security risks. And export bans on semiconductors and AI technology are designed to block China's access to critical technologies. At the same time, the US is investing heavily to shape global narratives about China that we were discussing. I'm not sure if many are aware that Congress, the US Congress has allocated more than $1.6 billion under countering PRC malign Influence fund what they call they have named it, essentially to counter China's, you know, media narrative worldwide. So, almost 300 million every year for the next several years.

And internally China faces some demographic headwinds. It has an aging population and falling birth rates  Some projections suggest that China's population could halve to around only 630 million from the current 1.4 billion by the end of this century. That's a long term structural issue, and I believe China is concerned about this.

Policies like China earlier had a one child policy which they have done with now they allow actually up to three children, but the problem is that things have changed with economic progress, cost of living has also gone up and over the decades, people have gotten used to a particular kind of life, so men and women both work. No one has the time to have more kids. So, China is facing this issue and we might see more, you know, policy incentives being launched in the coming years to address this issue. But to its credit, Beijing is also responding with automation. We have seen AI and robotics and other such technological, you know, innovations that China has done in the recent past trying to maintain productivity even as its population shrinks. So, the challenge is twofold: handling US contentment externally while managing economic transition and demographic change at home.

EZGI: So how do you think China's soft power is also factoring into everything?

ABHISHEK: Even when the US became the numerary, you know, global power in the last century. It kind of extended its influence, a lot of soft power, through its pop culture, Hollywood, you know, music, etc. So, soft power, of course, helps a lot in shaping the narrative about the country. And China has been attempting to do that, but it has been difficult for China. But still, you know, the rise of technology and the kind of social media boom that we have seen in the last decade, TikTok had become hugely popular. All of these social media platforms are also at the end of the day controlled by someone. We know for instance X who controls it now. It is also controlled by someone and whoever controls the platform can influence the narratives, so, TikTok was kind of an outlier because most of the world were used to using, you know, Western global platforms, IT platforms or social media platforms, and suddenly this Chinese platform came up and and kind of exploded.

EZGI: Out of nowhere yeah

ABHISHEK: And in fact, it became a source of income for many, you know, because it came at a time when making reels, you can actually monetise your content and make an earning. It became hugely popular in the West, in the US youth took to it. 

EZGI: Especially during the pandemic when everyone was home a lot, everyone was on their phones. So, the timing was perfect.

ABHISHEK: Yes, that timing was perfect and what happened was it was out of control of the Western censorship for instance. That way it became a threat because it, quite an irony that it was offering more freedom to a lot of people than your local platforms, you know, so that became the narrative. 

EZGI: Yeah absolutely. Let’s see how it plays out. So, what should we watch out for next in China's global strategy? What do you want to leave us with?

ABHISHEK: Great question, because we are clearly entering a new phase. If the past decade was about building infrastructure, think Belt and Road initiative, the next decade is about building influence as we were talking about. So first expect China's for global initiatives, which I mentioned the global. And the global security initiative, the Global Civilization initiative, the Global Development initiative, and the global governance initiative, to take center stage. These aren't just acronyms, they are Beijing's blueprint for a more cooperative multipolar world. You will see them push through platforms like BRICS, SCO and perhaps even at the UN. 

Second, China will keep expanding its leadership in the global South, through trade, green finance, and digital connectivity. It is positioning itself as a partner that listens and delivers, especially at a time when Western economics are becoming more protectionist. 

Third, keep an eye on how China manages US containment. Instead of confrontation, it is going for diversification, deepening ties in Africa, Latin America, and Eurasia.There's even talks of the SCO Development Bank to reduce dependence on the US dollar, not just the SCO Development Bank, but also the BRICS, you know, they have a National Development Bank again based in Shanghai. And there have been talks for a long time for having a BRICS currency or at least having some sort of a framework that the BRICS members can conduct trade in their own local currencies, sidelining the dollar. If the policy that the US is following now, where it is putting tariffs on friends and foes, irrespective, you know, I believe these demands will go stronger, and we might see a lot of developments on those aspects. 

And finally, watch China's soft power push from AI to tech and from media to culture to education. It is about reshaping narratives and promoting what Beijing calls win-win cooperation. So in short, the next phase of China's global strategy isn't just about growth, it's about legitimacy and leadership. The big story to watch now is how much of the global South buys into that vision. I personally believe that the 21st century is about building bridges, not walls. 

EZGI: Amazing. Thank you so much for being on the show.

ABHISHEK: Thank you very much, Ezgi.

EZGI: China’s story is about rapid growth but also it’s about reshaping the global order. From trade and technology to diplomacy and culture, Beijing’s strategy shows how power in the 21st century is being redefined. 

As Abhishek Bhaya put it: this century may well be about building bridges, not walls. Whether the world embraces that vision or resists, it will shape the next chapter of global leadership.

Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, I’m Ezgi Toper, and this was “In the Newsroom”.

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