24th Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum – Adversarial Influence Through Coercive Diplomacy

Mr. Andrew Publicover expressed that the President Biden and our Secretary of State, Anthony Blink, have made it clear that we see the People’s Republic of China as posing a unique long-term challenge to the international order, as the only country with both the intent and the capability to reshape the international order, with that unique economic, diplomatic, military, and technological capacity to do so, and we see Beijing with a vision for the world that would move us away from the universal value of human rights. Mr. Andrew stated that we see countries including the People’s Republic of China using a variety of tools, particularly China’s central position in the global economy, to increase other countries dependent relationship with them and then to use that dependence to impose their own foreign policy preferences and ultimately limit other countries. He commented that there are some headline-grabbing examples that may appear to come from far from this region, but there are also other examples from much closer to home, and these lessons are important for all countries to consider.