The Global South refers to developing countries, which are mostly (but not exclusively) in the southern hemisphere, including India, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, and most countries in Africa and Latin America. China is included too.
The report found that 795 online seminars were offered to foreign government officials in these countries in 2021 and 2022, funded and run by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Ministry of Commerce, promoting “an autocratic approach to governance” and pushing the narrative that authoritarian control is essential for economic development.
The findings are based on 1,691 files obtained from the Academy for International Business Officials (AIBO) under the CCP’s Ministry of Commerce. The AIBO that trains CCP cadres in the ministry has been in coordination with the CCP’s embassies to promote its online seminars in the Global South. According to the report, 21,123 individuals participated in the CCP’s online seminars over the two-year period.
The report’s author, researcher Niva Yau, categorized the training programs into six groups based on their contents to analyze how they serve “China’s broader ambitions to undermine the liberal democratic norms that currently underpin the global order.”
The first two groups are labeled “clearly authoritarian” and “potentially authoritarian” and have lessons on CCP practices that violate personal freedom, including “non-democratic regime practices” such as “administrative control over the media, information, and population.”
“The programs also provide practical assistance for host countries to fast-track adaptation of Chinese practices,” the report reads.
Training programs that fall into two other groups, “information operation access” and “security access” are centered on activities that serve the CCP’s “intelligence-collection purposes” and help further the Chinese regime’s access to foreign countries’ information operations and security infrastructure.
The CCP’s ideology, including regime leader Xi Jinping’s writings, is included in the training curriculum. So is the promotion of the Chinese regime’s Belt and Road Initiative, a large infrastructure loan program for developing countries that serves to expand the CCP’s political influence.
The report points out that the China model promoted in the training and activities is rooted in the CCP’s political ideology, including the centralization of power and the economy.
The training programs encourage “sympathy for Chinese narratives among officials across the Global South,” according to the report, which sees the programs as part of broader propaganda efforts by the CCP to craft positive narratives about China and the benefits of engaging with China.
According to the analysis, the programs repeatedly remind participants that the CCP owes its success to authoritarian governance practices while being critical of democratic practices and principles.
Democracy Versus Authoritarianism
The training programs are part of the CCP doubling down on its goal of expansion in the world’s poorest countries. Xi reiterated solidarity with those countries on June 12 in a video speech at the opening ceremony of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development.He said that “China will always be a member of the Global South and the developing world” and “will actively seek to import more from other developing countries, step up cooperation in trade, investment, and development.”
Cheng Cheng-ping, a professor of economics at Taiwan’s National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, said the training programs, which are run by the neutral-sounding Ministry of Commerce, show that the CCP under Xi has a “systematic approach to influence and dominate the global order that is beyond our imagination.”
“[The CCP], along with Russia, attempts to change the entire world order that is based on democracy, freedom, individualism, and the rule of law. Therefore, through its own economic success, it wants to bring in these Global South nations using these comprehensive training programs,” Mr. Cheng said.
He noted that the alliance between the CCP and the Global South has already affected the confrontation with the democratic West.
“China’s influence in many areas is now greater than that of the United States. As long as there is a vote in the United Nations, the United States loses almost every time,” Mr. Cheng said. “This is why Taiwan is not accepted by almost all international organizations.”
He also explained the lure of the China model promoted in the training programs.
“There are more than 100 developing countries, poor countries, and autocratic countries in the world. Their first priority is to maintain their own political dominance,” he said. “China’s economy has developed well, and the regime seems to be very stable, so this is a double temptation for them. If the economy develops well, the authoritarian regime can be more authoritarian. Their dominance is not only legitimized, but it is also getting stronger.”
Chen Shih-min, associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University, told The Epoch Times on June 14: “China provides the Global South countries with funds and loans through the Belt and Road Initiative. Unlike the Western countries, China doesn’t require them to promise political freedom and human rights to their people.”
Mr. Chen noted that this may lead some of the world’s least developed countries, especially in Africa, where many governments are dictatorships, to move closer to China.
However, Mr. Cheng pointed out that China’s economy has been slumping, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The real estate bubble is bursting,” he said. “Everyone is predicting that China’s economy will continue to decline and it won’t change in the near future. Meanwhile, Xi is tightening his grip over Chinese society. The China myth or the good China story is becoming harder to tell.
“Its ability to give away huge amounts of money to the developing countries has also diminished.”
Countering the CCP’s Influence
Mr. Cheng said the confrontation between authoritarianism and Western democratic values is clearly illustrated in the CCP’s training programs for the Global South officials.“Western countries must be more united and more strategic,” he said. “And then they should spend more resources, aid, and effort to help these vast regions, countries, and people that have long been dominated by poverty, chaos, and authoritarianism. If Western countries only care about their own society, evil forces like China and Russia will enter [the Global South] and have greater influence.
“There are some Global South countries, after they are able to get rid of poverty [with the help from the West], that will gradually follow Western values and move closer to the Western alliance.”
Mr. Chen suggests a similar approach to counter the CCP’s influence.
“Western countries should also not hesitate to provide more assistance to the development of Global South, especially their infrastructure construction,” he said.
Mr. Chen also urged the West to provide more accurate information about the CCP and China to counter the CCP’s propaganda in the cognitive war with the Chinese regime.
“Many countries in the Global South may be deceived by the CCP’s deliberate United Front and cognitive warfare operations, especially they may not understand the situation in the past two or three years—China is increasingly facing a host of economic and social problems,” he said. “Western countries must widely report on these and make clear explanations of the situation through media and other means.”
