now to a discussion to boost relations with developing countries amid influence featuring assistant secretary of state for east asian and pacific affairs daniel. this is about 40 minutes.

♪ hello, everyone and thank you for joining us in person here today at the atlantic council and virtually around the world. for the conference titled china and the global south development and influence in the shif global order to better understand and respond to the impact across the global south. my name is dave shulman senior director of the atlantic council's global china hub that has the mission of devising solutions to the global challenges posed by the rise leveraged in the atlantic across the 16 programs and centers. it's a true pleasure to kick off the conference on a topic that couldn't be more timely and which is controlled with two big questions around the state of the international order and its intensifying strategic competition as well as to the

state of progress towards the goals across much of the world as countries look to rebound from the pandemic and address massive infrastructure financing gaps and harness the ben technologies. in recent years china has devoted significant resources to deepening engagement across much of the world or what is referred to as the global south. from the trillion dollar gold gold and brood initiative to the creation of new multilateral forums conferences and summits china is portraying itself as a champion of hand for the global south and in many ways these efforts are paying off. china is africa's largest trading partner in the second largest for latin america and the caribbean. fifty-three countries have joined the belt and wrote initiative. there are of course political ramifications of deepening economic engagement. the only african country to recognize taiwan and since 2017, targeted investments in central america have helped entice the

dominican republic, el salvador and nicaragua to switch diplomatic recognitions from taiwan to the prc. we've seen a similar story play out in the pacific islands. six years ago six countries recognized taiwan but that number has now been cut in half he is has china deepened its economic and in some cases political security relationships with those nations with significant implications. meanwhile in the middle east beijing is translating mounting economic engagements into political and diplomatic influences. last march beijing was credited with mediating a détente between saudi arabia and iran reshaping the regions politics. now even as it maintains the traditional adverse approach to involvement in the region china aims to use the war and support for israel to bolster its narratives of the region and across the developing world. narratives that question the merits of the global order and democratic governments offering governance offering countries an alternative vision at the time when the world is

undergoing changes unseen in a century. the consequences of beijing's increas the diverse regions are magnified in multilateral forums like the united nations where china has sought to rally the countries to defend its human rights record and to support its efforts to transform the global order into one more suited to the rise under the chinese communist over the next two days we will explore the renewed a strategic focus andstrategicfocus and engagement in the global south but we will spend the bulk of our time doing something that isn't done enough here in washington which is to take a nuanced look at developing countries perspectives on china and whether there engagement is helping them to achieve ambitious development goals. we will explore with the picture what the picture looks like across the domains from tech innovation and digital ecosystems to investments debt and a trade to the rule of law and the information environment and much more. a benefiting from the participation of experts across africa latin america the middle

east and asia, we will explore how relations are playing out across the vast and diverse regions that make up the so-called global south. i'm thankful to those of you that have traveled long hours to n and bringing together your diverse perspectives we hope to listen and learn the circumstances in which they are truly benefiting from engagement, what is working and why and conversely, where the ties with china undermined the prosperity and sovereignty. and we will close the conference by discussing how the united states and its allies and partners can better engage the countries to benefit their citizens, present viable alternatives to the offers and ultimately ensure that the emerging strategic competition we are witnessing across the global self creates a more sustainable, prosperous and secure world. i'm truly excited about what we have in store for the next two days. with the hub program here at the

atlantic council that leverages the expertise across council in recognition of the fact that china's global impact across the domains is now simply too pervasive to be understood without such a matrix approach. i'm proud we are taking full advantage of the unique collaborative model during the conference with regional experts from more than half of the atlantic council centers taking part and enlivening us on everything from the debt restructuring to china shaping information's ecosystems to technology and standards to the export of surveillance tools and developing societies. thank you to the colleagues across the council for your participation in this groundbreaking conference. a conference which i'd like to underscore is only possible to the council's partnership with notre dame university and with my friend and longtime collaborator. the coleader of the global south initiative and associate professor of politics at notre dame's school of global affairs who i will introduce now. the research focuses on the political economy of china's development and its foreign

relations with the united states and the developing world particularly africa. he's been a visiting faculty member ating university and nyu. he was a policy analyst of the dress china economicu.s. china economic security review commission and a senior fellow for the american foreign policy council since 2006. before coming to notre dame in 2019 he was assistant professor of public affairs at the university of texas at austin. over to you. >> thank you. i appreciate the introduction. it's wonderful to be here with you today. and let me begin by saying the global initiative is transformative in that it is bringing together a top research university at notre dame with all of the benefits and all of the things that come with that to a top ashington think tank to the policy jobs that gave was mentioning in the speech, so it does for the growth of the interests of both of the

institutions and i'm proud to work with dave to be part of it because it is with the cgs i that we are going to be engaging with people in the conference and going forward throughout the global south unit working on issues in the global south and that is fundamental to the schools ambitions going forward as dean will talk about in a moment. but what i want to do is pry amicable of issues come up, put them on the table and then to discuss later it's pretty amazing that we are talking about this in this environment because in 2007, the ambassador invited a book called china and at the developing world, the strategy for the 21st century. we could barely find a publisher and when we did it was a two-tone cover. i don't think we sold many of them and the town wasn't that interested so to see interests that have come about is quite fantastic. and in some ways, we owe this to him because he's decided to make a change and instead of hiding,

he's striving for the achievements. part of the effort to strive for achievement, he's been engaging the global self interest of the world in ways we haven't seen before and so a lot of the development we have seen over the last decade is because he made it so you decided he was going to strive for achievement and it's under that rubric we have this tension developing between the united states and china and some have called it the new cold war. so it's within this context that they've become geo strategically important as well and that may be reminiscent in some ways of the ways they were important during the first cold war. however i would like to suggest that this is a different world we live in today. during the first cold war the united states found itself in proxy wars with the soviet union all around the globe in africa, angola, ethiopia in fact we were chidingfighting with the chinese but

i don't believe that in the current world this current cold war if you are well is going to lead across the globe. the fact they are interested in the same or similar outcomes could be juxtaposed with russia in places like the african continent is more than willing to benefit from chaos. pretty confliction we don't come into conflict with each other has occurred in the first cold war. this period has been under a the economy growing by leaps and bounds during this period and see in the population growing in

this period we see them going out as the strategies as mor and more. one of the questions that hangs over us today is well any of these trends continue. it is a different kind of country and 1.4 billion. if the entire discussion is predicated on the fact we will see continued chinese growth, that would be wrong. part of the discussion today is to not only look in the past b understand what these new trends mean for china's engagement in the global south. i hope that we can talk about this transition moment. i feel that we are in right now. and there is also one other thing i kind of want to adhere and this is my own view i'm

interested to see what others say about the confer here today. but i see using but i would call relatively cynical methods in order to stoke anti-american and anti-western sentiment in the global south in ways that serve its own interests. i wondered if this is in an effort to what we might call confirmation bias. there's a lot of residual resentment because of colonialism. so it's easy thought or two's come in and simply say that it's bad, was bad and is bad now and that will serve their interest in terms of the competition with of the united states, but my question for the panelists many of whom have flown in from countries all around the world is is it serving the interest of countries in the global south to make a choice or are they better not served by engaging as many as they can end up benefiting from those relationships. is this effort to split the world between more pro- china and more u.s. camps not antithetical to the interests of

the global south at large. i don't want to necessarily say one way or another. i'm very interested to hear from people who've who come to hear their views on this but i am concerned that we have a country in china which is an authoritarian state using the language of diversity equity and inclusion to essentially galvanize progressives all around the world and i find it very interesting, fascinating and a somewhat ten't recognized. so i'm very curious to hear from the panelists about their views on this particular issue and whether they believe that china is leading them down and whether or not it is the leader of the global south south that it pretends to be. those are a few preliminary comments that i want to put on the tt to do is introduce the dean of the school of global affairs without whom we wouldn't be sitting here today and sitting here

today. a professor of history at the university of notre dame and the author of 15 books. he was the founding dean of the school of global affairs finishing off the second term now and so is he may tell you it has about eight or nine years of history and he has led us from our birth pains to where we are is a major college within the university, so i'm very pleased that he's come from south bend to introduce the conference here today. so why don't i introduce gene scott appleby to the podium. >> thank you josh. i think with those preliminary remarks we can adjourn the meeting now. [laughter] and enjoy the false spring outside. it would be a false spring. it might be real here in dc.

i am really pleased to have the opportunity to thank the atlantic council for partnering with our school of global affairs on the china global self initiative which seems to be a very promising and exciting project designed as you know to understand and analyze and better respond to china's strategic intentions, methods and ultimate political and economic influence in the global south. it is our mantra as a university we are a force for good though you may. in order to participate we must engage beyond the classroom. the china global self initiative between the atlantic council and school is in the example example of what that engagement looks like. over the course of the

relatively brief life, we are currently in our mind or tenth year since i'm the founding at the 18th or 20th year by the way i'm counting it. we've been keeping up over these ten years we've been keeping a pretty fanatic case of hiring world-renowned scholars to staff the interdisciplinary research and teaching policy school including from whom we just heard. he leads the discussion at collective plans to explore ever moreevermore intensively the presence in africa never losing sight along the way of the domestic drivers largereign policy complex and economic dimensions of that presence. the notre dame more broadly the asia experts from several disciplines, track and evaluate the numerous ways china's rule across the influence is shaping the futu own people as well as the international order.

at the school itself given the array of social sciences, legal scholars, ethicists, international conflict mediators, engineers historians, anthropologists and environmental governance experts that comprise the faculty we pay particular attention to the impact of china's policy and presence on questions to the human development and human security. including poverty sustainability human rights, multilateral peace building conflict resolution and good governance. these are the areas of expertise we have some expertise already and we are building stronger faculty every year. there was a pretty good clip to continue but now the number is about 70. this is best done in

collaboration between diplomats china experts and an array of related areas of specialization. that's why i joined my colleagues participating in the conference including the professor in celebrating this partnership from which we have already learned a great deal and by means of which we can further leverage the growing expertise and study of china. last but not least i think the atlantic council for hosting this remarkable confidence and conference and taking the lead and organizing it. among my colleagues present is the professor that oversees the school's washington, d.c. office which is just down the street. we look forward in the coming months to organizing a variety of events on china and the global south and to hosting the

next major conference of this promising partnership. thank you. now it is my honor to introduce the general to kick off the conference on behalf of the atlantic council. >> distinguished fellow with of the atlantic council's scowcroft center for strategy and security. in 2022, general walters completed a distinguished 40 year active-duty career in the u.s. air force has the commander of u.s. european command. a supreme allied commander europe he led the transition out of afghanistan insured the health crisis did not transform into the security crisis and led to nato's military allies and zation's response to the largest invasion of a european nation since world war ii. general walters it is an honor to have you kick off the

co the atlantic council. over to you. on behalf of the atlantic council, it is my privilege to welcome all of you for this great gathering for the global health initiative. as all of you know, it is a strategic imperative to improve global integration in the diplomatic informational military and economic spectrums. the more we can get out of the strategic integration the better our ability to promote our democratic values and from a first-hand experience first-hand experience perspective, i was able to see the great power competition and play with respect to every single tidbit of information that came out of moscow was instanta iran, china and north korea antithetic nexus reveals how fast it's been in the 21st century and theramatic need all of us have to be aware of

what takes place in all dimensions across the entire globe. so on behalf of the atlantic council, we are excited to have all of you for this gathering and welcome. [applause] moving right along it's my pleasure to introduce the speaker. daniel was assistant secretary of state for east asia and pacific affairs as he has been since september of 2021. he's a career member of the foreign service out of the rank of minister. he has served as the senior director of the national security council from 2015 to 2017 and he ser of mission where i think we met many years ago back in the day about ten years ago now from 2013 to 2015 he served in multiple overseas posts as i said in beijing tokyo. he speaks chinese and japanese

and holds a degree from the university of virginia masters degree. thank you so much for joining us here today. >> good morning everyone. >> thank you for the kind introduction. thank you for the atlantic council and the university of notre dame for inviting me to speak at this important event and for giving me an opportunity to get out of my office at the state department. it's always a pleasure to be with you all. i'm the assistant secretary of state, honored of a lifetime to have this job. but candidly speaking given my focus on the east asia pacific region i don't often have the opportunity to speak about countries beyond those in my region. but as's republic of china is the only country with both of the intent to reshape the international order and the technological capacity to do it. it's a major play on most policy issues and that is in part why we approach it through a global

lens. the world of course is also more interconnected than ever. the global reverberations of the conflict is in the middle east are tragic reminders that what happens in one region has a direct impact on others, and of course that is the fact that the nt councils pub and notre dame school of global affairs understands well and it's clear looking at thes here today you not only have global reach but critically you both are ensuring the voices from around the world are heard and amplified. leadership starts with listening into the shared problems from the pspective of others so that we can find common ground. and if it is precisely why the institutions like the atlantic council and notre dame free flow of ideas and again it's why i am so honored to be with you here

today. this notion is what the foreign policy is all about, creating a world that is open, free, prosperous and secure. a world where ideas can flow freely into economic partnerships generate broad-based inclusive growth and more countries and they can choose their path. a world where the institutions prevail over outdated and dangerous concepts. this is not a world for the united states to define or advance alone. quite the contrary we can only build, preserve and nurture it together with our allies partners and friends and that's why our main focus and wear where lies" my time every single day is working to cultivate our alliances and partnerships in pursuit of this vision. we can't deny the competition is also a critical part of this moment. and sce the focus of the conference let me take a little bit of time to explain the approach to the prc.

it has benefited from the stability and opportunity that the international order provides. but unfortunately it often takes actions that undermine those principles rather than reinforce them. it's advancing the maritime freedom of navigation and commerce undermined in the economic sphere where the trade restrictions on countries that have taken sovereign decisions not to beijing's liking and undermined them in our own backyard where it commits acts of to harass and intimidate individuals around the world including our own citizens. over the past decade it's become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad. it's advancing an alternative vision for global governance. it has proposed a global development initiative, the global security initiative and atthe global civilization initiative as a strategic

guidance for its alternative vision and the belt and a road initiative is the platform for its implementation. but these represent a departure from heart of the international system. for example, the contradiction of the security interest large states over smaller ones and it indeed legitimizes the right to collect the defense and they seek to redefine the human rights and privileges of the west rather than inherent and universal rights. they failed to meet important standards related to environmental and social protections as well as debt sustainability. actively seeking the endorsement of these initiatives to demonstrate support for its governance and development. given our competing visions for the world, the relationship is one of intense strategic competition. at the same time the united states is committed to managing

the competition responsibly so that it doesn't veer into miscalculation or conflict. and we are always willing to work with the prc where the interests align and where there is an imperative to do so and if it is evident in the cooperation on the transnational challenges such as climate and counternarcotics following the summit between president biden and the strategy that we put forth for our approach to the prc challenge is what the secretary laid out in the speech nearly two years ago and our. i am is an vest, a lion and compete. we invest in the foundation of our strength at home. our competitiveness, innovation, democracy. we align with our network of allies and partners, acting with common purpose and in common cause and harnessing these a with china to defend our interests and to build the vision for the future. now at the stateepartment, we primarily focus on the aligned and competitive abilities.

let me share a little bit about what we have achieved in those areas constitution of partnerships. we have been renewing and rejuvenating and even reimagining them. that is in the traditional alliance partnerships again that we have reenergized. for example, the leaders of the quad countries that include of course india aian, five times since 2021. and put forth major initiatives on the infrastructure maritime security, public-private partnerships critical need emerging technologies into space. similarly in 2022 after welcoming the leaders to washington for the historic special summit, health climate

and women's empowerment and we've sustained top level participation and long-standing dialogues with the secretary state, secretary defense and at the trade representative. the approach is also evident in the collection of countries with which we are partnering even as we engage with multilateral groupings, for example last september we launched the partnership for the atlanta cooperation on the margins which is a new multilateral forum that brings together 32 crystal atlanta countries across four continents to address a broad range of issues from the economic development to environmental protection to science and technology. after organizing the first summit for democracy in december 2021 we partnered with over 100 governments around the world to take meaningful steps to build more resilient democracies, to combat corruption and to defend human rights. last year he cohosted the second assignment for democracy within the leaders of costa rica, the netherlands, the republic, coming

into thisand this diverse group of cohosts underscores the universal desire for transparent rights and governance and we very much look forward to the next. in september 2023 for the second year in a rowdent biden hosted of the leaders the leaders of the pacific islands for the u.s. pacific island summit and building upon historic first the president reaffirmed their commitment tothecommitment to the shared regional priorities and to deepening the cooperation around them including tackling the climate crisis, advancing economic growth, promoting sustainable development, strengthening security, countering fishing and expanding our people to people ties. in other words, i think that the summit would represent both the american foreign policy is all about. meeting our partners where they live understanding what their needs and priorities are and

then working together to address them. that is our affirmative vision. and finally our commitment to engaging is evident as we deepen our bilateral relationships with the countries institutions and people of the emerging partners economies or of the atlantic council refers to as the global south. i know there's a lot of controversy around that term. during the historic visits in 2023 we upgraded the bilateral relationships with vietnam and indonesia to comprehensive strategic partnerships into december 2022 we hosted the second africa leaders summit which includes the delegations from all 49 invited countries africa union alongside members of civil society and the private sector. building on this historic government leaders visited 26 countries in africa in 2023. meanwhile in the pacific in area of responsibility, we

recently opened and we intend to open an and we are actively discussing the interest in opening an embassy with of the government we've also opened the new u.s. embassy and recognized the cook islands a sovereign and independent nation and established toa diplomatic relations with them. but it's not enough to just show up. it's not enough to just hold conferences. it'sutg. the secretary often says we don't want countries to have to choose between us and the prc. we want to help ensure that they have a choice their decisions free from coercion. that brings me to the compete biller of the tree strategy competing with of the prc to offer a better value proposition to developing countries. one again that is in line with their interests and values and supports their ability to make their own sovereign decisions

again free from coercion.s meetings for example we reaffirmed the commitment to the sustainable development goals and recognition when countries come together under a common development division, then they have the capacity to deliver for both people and the planet. as a long-standing leader, the u.s. remains a singleargest bilateral donor investing over $100 billion over the last two years alone. this includes over 43 billion to help and poverty over 20 billion to drive inclusive economic growth and decent work which is over $16 billion to promote peace justice and good governance. the u.s. is also the largest provider of humanitarian aid at a time of unprecedented media including in gaza where the secretary visited the region five times into the conflict began in october and where we have insured of the delivery to address the ongoing suffering of palestinians and civilians.

since january 2021 the u.s. provided $17.5 billion to tackle the world hunger and provided 50% of the world's food program's budget. we are devoting a billion dollars annually through. the future to the u.s. governmentsgovernment's global food security initiative to stre safety nets and nutrition and more than 40 countries. we are also strengthening the food systems over the initiatives like the vision for adaptive crops and soil. this was launched in partnership with the african union and it's now mobilizing the international community to boost the agricultural productivity and nutrition by investing more and expanding my access to the claimant adapted crops and building fertile healthy soil. we directed $150 million in support for the vision and rallied a broad coalition of governments, corporations and nonprofits to work alongside us in support of these goals. we are closing the infrastructure gap and developingnt of the partnerships for the global

infrastructure and investment. catalyzing investments with values driven, high-impact and quality infrastructure and related investments. and along with our g7 partners, we've already mobilized $30 billion towards the collective commitment of $600 billion of infrastructure financing by 2027. through pgi and in partnership with the european union we are making a series of transformative investments the economic corridor which is a band of development connecting africa from angola sport across the prc and zambia with port upgrades new integrated lines, bridges and roads green power projects, 4g and 5g access and business development along a multitude of other projects. it will deliver 500 megawatts enough to provide electricity for more than a million people

around 900,000 tons of carbon emission every year and create thousands of jobsousands more for americans and bring critical minerals like copper and cobalt to the markets to support the clean energy transmission. we've also recently launched the middle east europe economic corridor. together with saudi arabia,ly and the we are transformative investments across multiple sectors to leverage broad affects of boosting economic development and securing supply chains and bolstering the regional connectivity. we have the potential to usher in a new era of connectivity a link through ports connected by the middle east. this will create interconnections to facilitate global trade, spin reliable access to electricity, facilitate the clean energy distribution and strengthen the telecommunications we are arturing partnerships to leverage the finance to achieve climate action. for example, we are engaged in just energy transmissionrtnerships

so with south africa and indonesia and vietnam to accelerate the ambitious energy transitions. to strengthen the policy and regulatory environment for the clean energy investment and to build a pipeline of clean energy projects. we lead theroup for the indonesia and worked with our partners and financial alliance for net zero for over $20 billion in public and private financing. and we are working with the partners to mobilize 15.58.5 billion publican private financing for vietnam and south africa respectively. so part and parcel of deliverin though is also to ensure that we are seeking to deliver for those two have a seat at the table when we are making the decisions that impact them. that's why the secretary said the goal is not just to preserve the international order but also to modernize it and ensure that it represents the interest of all nations so that it can

address the challenges whether it is climate change or global pandemics like covid-19. that's why we also support increasing the number of both council. this includes permanent seats for the nations that have long supported into permanency for those in africa andica and the caribbean. it's also why we supported the africa union's bid to join the g20 and reflection of the vitality of the important role of africa in the global economy. and that's why we support the proposed deputy managing director role and executivehe imf to give a greater voice to the global south. so, in conclusion, and outlining this incredible long list of policies and initiatives i hope it is clear that while we are in the midst of intense strategic competition to the future of the international order, we also refused to see the world solely through those

we engage all regions and nations across all these issues not in terms of what we are against, but in terms of what we are for and what we are four is a free, open, prosperous and secure international order and we draw s are for as a goal shared across the geographies and people. we are for an order that allows di and freedoms, that provides all nations that assign up to these principles in opportunity to participate in and to have a these rules. at that empowers all nations to continually raise the standard of living for their citizens and one that is free from aggression coercion and intimidation. that is our vision for the international order. the strongest possible coalition of the nations to advance this vision and to improve the lives of the american people and people around the world. thank you very much for inviting me out for the opportunity to be

able to share our views and i wish you a very successful conference. thank you. [applause] have about a ten minute break here. we are going to reconvene for the first panel. ..