27th Parliamentary-Intelligence Security Forum – China Competition
Mr. Robert Daly framed competition with China as fundamentally a contest over world order over which values, governance models, and institutional standards will underpin the international system. Drawing on his extensive time living in China, he urged the audience to understand how Beijing sees itself: not simply as an aggressor, but as a country with a longstanding “virtue narrative” rooted in sovereignty, development, security, and participation in shaping global governance. Chinese leaders such as Wang Yi, he noted, emphasize China’s right to determine its own political system, ensure human flourishing, secure access to resources and markets, and translate growing wealth into global influence much as the United States has historically done.
He acknowledged China’s major achievements, including lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty and becoming the world’s largest trading nation and lender. He also recognized that many countries have benefited from Chinese infrastructure and investment, even amid the mixed record of the Belt and Road Initiative. At the same time, he highlighted serious concerns: rapid military expansion, nuclear buildup, cyber and space capabilities, economic coercion against countries such as Japan and Lithuania, pressure in the South China Sea, and efforts to promote secrecy and top-down governance within international institutions. Domestically, he described the construction of a vast surveillance state, tightened political control, suppression of dissent and minorities, and a system in which law ultimately serves party directives.
According to Daly, China’s global vision mirrors its domestic governance model: material prosperity, technological advancement, and international integration combined with unquestioned one-party rule. He characterized Beijing’s approach as building “deference through dependence,” leveraging economic ties to ensure that partner countries avoid criticizing China, thereby exporting norms of silence and constraint rather than openly articulated ideological rules. While he rejected the idea that China seeks to “rule the world,” he argued it does seek influence without obstacle or objection.
Concluding, Daly stressed that the post World War II order imperfect but broadly democratic relies on transparency, open debate, and rule-based proposals. He argued that transparency is the West’s greatest strength in responding to China’s more opaque approach. However, criticism alone is insufficient; the United States and its partners must provide credible economic and technological alternatives, especially in areas like telecommunications infrastructure, if they hope to effectively compete.
