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China's Place in the New Post-American International Order

The China-Global South Podcast

Release Date: 01/23/2026

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The China-Global South Podcast

There's been a lot of discussion in recent years about the financial health of China's Belt and Road Initiative. Critics contend the BRI became overstretched, bankrupting borrowers and straining creditors suffering from a weakening Chinese economy. Even the Chinese government sought to reframe the BRI with its "small yet beautiful" tagline to reflect a new era of purported austerity. And while all of that was certainly true when it comes to state-backed Chinese entities that used to be at the forefront of the BRI, new data from Griffith University in Australia and the Green Finance and...

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The China-Global South Podcast

As debate intensifies over the unraveling of the U.S.-led international order, sparked by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s stark remarks at Davos, small states are being forced to rethink how they survive and advance in an increasingly fragmented global system. Carney captured the anxiety shared by many global leaders when he bluntly declared that the U.S.-led international order is over. In this episode of the China Global South Podcast, Eric is joined by Sagar Prasai, an independent advisor to international development agencies, and Mandakini D. Surie, an independent development...

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The China-Global South Podcast

The collapse of the post-war international system now underway will have a disproportionate impact on African countries that rely heavily on multilateral bodies like the UN. Beyond a pull-back of aid and humanitarian assistance, African countries must also contend with an increasingly hostile United States. Dozens of African countries have been targeted by the Trump administration for visa restrictions, trade sanctions, and regularly denigrated by the president himself. At the same time, U.S. diplomats across the continent were ordered by the State Department in January to remind African...

info_outline China's Place in the New Post-American International Order show art China's Place in the New Post-American International Order

The China-Global South Podcast

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week will likely be remembered as one of the most significant orations of the early 21st century. Carney channeled the fear and frustration of many global leaders when he defiantly declared that the U.S.-led international order is over. The "rupture" that Carney referenced in his address has profound consequences for China as it moves to reshape a part of this new international order to better align with its interests. Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior...

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The China-Global South Podcast

China was among the first and most vocal opponents of the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro. Curiously, though, when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to launch military strikes against Iran as Tehran dealt with a massive popular uprising, China was largely silent. Both Venezuela and Iran have high-level strategic partnerships with China, yet the Chinese leadership's responses to the crises in each country are radically different. William (Bill) Figueroa, a leading China-Iran scholar and an assistant professor at the University of...

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The China-Global South Podcast

In this special bonus episode, Eric speaks with Kaiser Kuo, host of the popular Sinica Podcast, about China's response to the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolas Maduro. Many U.S. and European analysts have framed Maduro's downfall as a "setback" or even an "embarrassment" for Beijing, but while that may be true, Eric argues that it's also premature to make such declarations less than a week after Maduro's downfall. After all, U.S.-led military interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya all started well but ended up being very costly failures for...

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The China-Global South Podcast

One of the prevailing narratives that's emerged following the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and the detention of President Nicolás Maduro is that this is a major setback for China. Some analysts have called it a "strategic failure" on Beijing's part, while others have described it as "reality check" for China's role as a "global player." But China's ability to influence events in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America is extremely limited, so the assessment that what happened in Caracas was a blow to Beijing may also be overstated. Alonso Illueca, CGSP's non-resident fellow for...

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The China-Global South Podcast

In this special year-end edition of The China-Global South Podcast, Eric, Cobus, and Géraud look back on the top stories of 2025 and look ahead to the key trend to watch in 2026.  📌 Topics covered include: Simandou goes online (Guinea) and the iron ore geopolitics shift Zambia’s Kafue River spill and the China narrative battle China’s manufacturing push, overcapacity, and export pressures Soybeans and South America’s growing leverage in U.S.–China trade China–India détente and what it changes (and doesn’t) G20 turbulence around South Africa and global governance...

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The China-Global South Podcast

The increasingly acrimonious U.S.-China relationship is the defining trend of this era, upending global politics, economics, and security, especially across the Global South. Countries that have worked hard from having to pick sides in this new competition, may longer have that luxury as this rivalry intensifies. Jane Perlez, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and a former longtime China correspondent for The New York Times, has been covering this story since the 1980s. Now, together with acclaimed Harvard University China scholar Rana Mitter, she's launched season 3 of her award-winning...

info_outline What Makes China’s Foreign Aid Different show art What Makes China’s Foreign Aid Different

The China-Global South Podcast

Soon after USAID was closed in February, speculation circulated that China would move quickly to fill the void left by the United States. That did not happen. While the Chinese did step in to provide modest additional funding for a handful of programs, like demining initiatives in Cambodia and support for the Africa CDC in Addis Ababa, overall, there's been no significant change in China's foreign aid programs. That did not surprise Alicia Chen, a PhD candidate at Stanford University, who noted in a recent that Beijing is very tactical with where and how it distributes overseas development...

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week will likely be remembered as one of the most significant orations of the early 21st century. Carney channeled the fear and frustration of many global leaders when he defiantly declared that the U.S.-led international order is over.

The "rupture" that Carney referenced in his address has profound consequences for China as it moves to reshape a part of this new international order to better align with its interests.

Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior research scholar at Columbia University, joins Eric & Cobus to discuss why this is such a pivotal time for China as it moves to become a peer power of the United States, at least economically, without triggering the so-called "Thuycides Trap" that dictates this kind of rivalry often leads to war.

Show Notes:

📌 Topics covered in this episode:

  • Mark Carney’s Davos speech and the declaration of a global rupture
  • The collapse of the rules-based international order
  • What a post-American world looks like for middle powers
  • Economic coercion and the weaponization of supply chains
  • Where China fits in the new global order
  • China’s long economic war and leverage strategy
  • The Global South’s trust gap with China
  • Why the debt trap narrative persists despite evidence
  • China as an opportunity rather than ally in emerging markets
  • The rapid erosion of U.S. global credibility

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