Project on China as a Global Leader

Project Experts

Elizabeth C. Economy
Elizabeth C. Economy

Senior Fellow for China Studies

Yanzhong Huang
Yanzhong Huang

Senior Fellow for Global Health

Joshua Kurlantzick
Joshua Kurlantzick

Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia

About the Project

Under Xi Jinping, China has emerged as an increasingly influential actor in global governance. The Council on Foreign Relations Project on China as a Global Leader analyzes how a newly assertive Beijing is reshaping global governance and assesses the implications of Beijing’s actions for the international system. In particular, the project examines China’s historical approach to global governance and seeks to understand the ways in which President Xi Jinping and China now are influencing international norms and institutions in areas including development finance, internet governance, public health, and human rights. Each of these areas represents an arena that is: truly global, not only regional, in nature, thereby involving the interests of all countries; a contested area of international governance in which norms are currently evolving and being debated; and, arenas in which China often has articulated alternatives and initiatives to ideas and policies pursued by the United States.

This project will help enrich U.S. policy discourse about how other states view China’s approach to global governance. It further will allow U.S. and global opinion leaders to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of China’s growing influence in shaping global norms and behaviors, and will help U.S. policymakers formulate a more nuanced, comprehensive strategy toward China.

This project is made possible with the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation and the Ford Foundation.