Wang Huiyao

Opinion | Democracy-autocracy divide will not serve global – or even Western – interests

Taking on autocratic powers has given the West a new-found sense of purpose, but it risks alienating emerging global players with its simplistic world view

A narrative that focuses on the clash between world orders does not resonate with countries more concerned about economic struggle and the climate crisis

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Wang Huiyao

Published: 1:00am, 21 Feb 2023Updated: 2:24am, 21 Feb 2023

National leaders and foreign policy experts gathered in Bavaria last week for the Munich Security Conference, also known as the “Davos for Defence”. Over the years, the event has been a valuable factory for ideas and a barometer for shifts in geopolitics and states’ responses to new threats and challenges.

In the early years after it was launched in 1963, the conference focused on the Cold War and nuclear threats and served to project the strength and cohesion of the transatlantic alliance. After the end of the Cold War, the conference agenda widened to cover issues like climate change, terrorism and cyber threats.

It remains a Nato-centric event, but as the balance of power in the world has shifted, representation from emerging powers like China and India has also grown. This includes participation by our think tank, the Centre for China and Globalisation, which this year held a side event on China-US relations.

In 2020, the last time I attended the conference in person, the theme was “Westlessness”, reflecting an identity crisis in the West amid its declining relative power and fractures in the transatlantic alliance.

At this year’s event, which took place amid the fallout from the China-US balloon saga and the war in Ukraine, there was no sense of “Westlessness” to be found. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and hype about the “China threat” have galvanised the West with a new sense of purpose: a grand clash between democracy and autocracy.

The meeting held on the sidelines of the conference between China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while signalling that both sides were moving on from the balloon incident, nevertheless served to highlight the division of the world into two camps.