China shows economic strength by closing deals and partnerships in construction and financing with other nations as part of its Belt and Road initiative. Chinese military dominates the South China Sea towering its competition, the United States, over influence with its Asian neighbors.
China and Egypt closed a $3 billion contract to build 21 skyscrapers. Chinese banks will finance the construction and China's largest construction conglomerate will build the project. Egypt controls the Suez Canal which is vital as a shipping passage that could impede China's global aspirations. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is currently in friendly relations with Beijing.
China is expanding its trade through undertakings that promote collaboration with other nations. The country helps in the construction of rail networks and highways in countries like Africa and Latin America. The economic giant also collaborates in building ports and power stations in Eastern Europe and South Asia. The country also finances web companies in Southeast Asia as it projects its growing military power in the South China Sea.
Chinese President Xi Jinping's leadership opened China's commerce to the world. The country is now competing with the United States in terms of Commerce and National Security. The country competes with the U.S. even in areas that are traditionally under its influence.
According to Zhang Baohhui, a professor of international relations at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, the Chinese president leads a China that has influence in all corners of the globe. He added that the 2008 financial crisis in the west was the turning for China. He said that the country started to embrace a triumphal mindset, and pursued global leadership with the new confidence on the back of the West's perceived flaws.
United States President Donald Trump's trade war derides internal cooperation. The president's policies created doubts of the liberal democracy that they are promoting. According to Jessica Chen Weiss, a China expert at Cornell University, what's happening in the United States gives China the golden opportunity to portray itself as the defender of international order.
China is also developing its military. Chinese forces are now occupying portions of the South China Sea. One of the country's objectives is to return the glory to China by overthrowing the United States influence in the South China Sea.
China's state-owned companies are in control of two-Chinese-built ports in Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Additional ports are to be constructed in Myanmar and Bangladesh to help China achieve its Maritime strategy of a "string of pearls" to be built from the mainland to Africa.
