Regional Multilateralism with Chinese Characteristics

Abstract

Abstract While it is notable that China has become a member of almost all international organizations (excepting the OECD, International Energy Agency, and Missile Technology Control Regime), much less noticeable has been China’s steadily increasing involvement in regional multilateral organizations and groups of nations. As China has expanded its global footprint into literally every continent and part of the planet, Beijing has sought to join existing institutions in those regions—but what is particularly noteworthy is that China has stimulated and created a wide range of new organizations and regional groupings all around the world. That is what this chapter is about—China’s regional multilateralism. Such Chinese initiatives most notably include: the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus China (ASEAN + 10), Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS), Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), China–Arab States Cooperation Forum (CACF), China–Central and Eastern Europe Countries (CEEC), and a series of groupings in Latin America (China–Latin America Forum, China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum, China–Latin America Common Market Dialogue, and China–Latin America Business Summit). China has been either the initiator of, or actively engaged in, the creation of all these groupings.