Why China should be friendlier to its neighbours
If it wants to challenge America’s global leadership, it will need their backing
No country has more neighbours than China, with 14 land borders. And its neighbourhood is not just crowded, but also tumultuous. There is a rogue state, North Korea; war-torn ones, such as Myanmar; ones with which it has festering territorial disputes, such as India; others with which it has overlapping maritime claims, such as Japan; and one—Taiwan—which it is constantly threatening to invade. It is a difficult group to get along with under any circumstances, but China’s flawed diplomacy is making the task even harder.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Neighbourhood botch”
Briefing July 8th 2023
From the July 8th 2023 edition
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