China has been exporting its governance model and Communist Party ideology to developing countries through training programs run under the guise of a business academy, according to a new report by the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub.
The report says 795 online seminars were funded by the Chinese government in 2021 and 2022 pushing an overall message that authoritarian control is essential for economic development. The findings are based on over 1,000 documents from the Academy for International Business Officials (AIBO), an educational institution run by China’s Ministry of Commerce.
The AIBO’s website describes itself as an educational facility that provides business training, conference services, human resource training and party training for Chinese Communist Party members in the ministry.
The catalogue includes instructions to Chinese embassies in various countries — mostly emerging ones in the so-called Global South — to invite participants to online seminars. According to the report, titled “A Global South with Chinese characteristics,” a total of 21,123 individuals took part in such events over the two-year period.
The documents also included plans for programs hosted by various university departments and state research institutes on a range of topics, from national governance and policing to administrative control of media and information.
Niva Yau, author of the report, said that while many countries conduct international outreach through training programs and experience-sharing, the Chinese model is rooted in political ideology, including the centralization of governance and the economy.
“Each training, no matter the subject, contains simplified and summarized language on party ideology and organization, and their significant contribution to the PRC’s achievements in that subject,” Yau said, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “This is how authoritarian governance choices are being promoted even in the most niche of subject areas.”
The goal appears to be to leave participants with an understanding that China has managed to overcome economic challenges because of its authoritarian political environment, Yau added.
While other types of training cover less ideological subjects such as blockchain technology and environmental protection, strong elements of Chinese propaganda and diplomacy are included, according to the report. A course on biogas technology, rural energy and conservation held in June 2022 included a session on China’s politics, foreign policy and contributions to countering COVID-19. It was led by Wang Lei, deputy dean of the School of Government and a member of the party committee at Beijing Normal University.
Nikkei Asia reviewed some of the documents in the report. In one, the AIBO contracted the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), a ministry-level institution under the country’s State Council, to run a seminar on June 2, 2021, to share the contents, principles and values of “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” — a collection of the president’s speeches and writing.
“The project aims to equip head-of-state senior advisers and cabinet members of developing countries with a comprehensive understanding of China’s national governance practices and capacities, with a particular focus on practices of social mobilization and management in response to COVID-19 and development challenges brought by the pandemic,” the government document said.
According to the CASS website, 20 senior government advisers and scholars from six countries, including Pakistan, Ecuador and Chile, attended the online seminar. One of the speakers was Wu Bo, a professor who specializes in party building and Chinese Marxism at CASS’s School of Government.
The Ministry of Commerce also organized a seminar on media training by the China International Communications Group, an entity under the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda department. Chinese authorities keep news organizations on a tight leash and have built a sophisticated censorship apparatus to ensure that media outlets “tell China’s good story.”
Beijing has made great efforts to change global discourse through tactics that include influencing overseas media to portray China in a good light. It has also shared its advanced surveillance technology — used to monitor citizens and suppress dissent — with other countries.
The Global South appears to be a key part of Xi’s strategy of forging an alternative international order to that led by the U.S. Amid frosty ties with Washington and its Western allies, China has sought to deepen ties with Global South countries in recent years.
“There is no doubt that many countries across the Global South are eager to experiment [with China’s model of governance],” Yau said. “We are already witnessing a global polarization trend where the Chinese alternative is being adopted at the core level, with irreversible implications that may entrap countries across the Global South with Beijing’s international authoritarian project.”
