China and its Challenge to Liberal Democracy

The terminology used to encapsulate China’ expansion is increasingly revolving around scenarios for a new Cold War.

On the surface, with anti-China naval deployments to the Indo-Pacific, gulag style camps in the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang and a crackdown against political dissent in Hong Kong, comparisons to the 20th Century Cold War may seem obvious.

But beneath that surface lies a misleading and dangerous mindset, much of it propelled by a political commentariat which so far has failed to define what exactly China is as a nation and what it is attempting to achieve. […]