China’s latest Five-Year Plan signals that it has become more pessimistic about the global environment, seeing it as uncertain and unstable. However, the Chinese Communist Party sees opportunity in that instability to promote the Community of Common Destiny, their new model of global governance. The Five-Year Plan also signals that the Chinese will continue to use the United Nations to advance this new global governance system.
As a result of Beijing’s growing pessimism, the United States could see a China that retrenches itself in the Western Pacific, hoping to stabilize its economy and its borders. Although worried, China could also see an opportunity in the chaos to shape its neighborhood without US interference, with further island-building in the South China Sea or other aggression toward its neighbors. This China will also use the worry and malcontent of nations to advance its vision for global governance, using the United Nations and its four Global Initiatives.