Diplomatic traffic indicates gravitational pull of influence

The recent diplomatic traffic to Beijing again shows the global desire for greater engagement.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari is in China for a weeklong visit extending beyond Beijing, to Hunan and Hainan provinces, as provincial development, industrial cooperation and regional connectivity are now part of statecraft. As China and Pakistan mark 75 years of diplomatic relations this year, their partnership has matured into something more durable.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong comes, from Tuesday to Thursday, at a time when China-Australia relations are undergoing pragmatic repair. Although Canberra remains allied with Washington in security, it cannot ignore the arithmetic. China remains central to Australia's exports and regional future. According to Lin Jian, spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries has maintained sound momentum. Realism is making a comeback.

Belgium's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot arrives, from Monday to Friday, in what is the 55th year of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries. Belgium is a gateway economy in Europe, a logistics node and a country with substantial interests in trade, shipping, biomedicine and investment. These fields are all important to China and broader consensus on cooperation serves both countries' interests. Exporters and port operators value functioning commerce.

The visit of Annalena Baerbock, president of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, from Wednesday to Thursday, underscores another reality: multilateral institutions still matter, and China's influence within them is growing. Nations seeking relevance in global governance cannot bypass the world’s second-largest economy.

All this is happening while some sections of Western policy circles continue reciting the catechism of containment. Consider Jake Sullivan's recent Foreign Affairs essay, "The Tech High Ground". It argues that the United States must systematically secure technological dominance over China in critical sectors.

That is a familiar Western refrain: if one cannot outcompete comfortably, regulate aggressively. Yet technology ecosystems are networks of talent, capital, supply chains and markets. Attempting to wall them off indefinitely will be expensive, distortive and ultimately self-defeating.

China offers a different conceptual framework: cooperation, mutual benefit and its vision of a community with a shared future for humanity. Behind the phrase lies a challenge to the old doctrine that the international order is merely the management of a hierarchy by the strong. China is committed to a world order in which prosperity is shared, sovereignty respected and stability treated as a common good rather than a strategic ration.

Where some powers weaponize tariffs, sanctions and technology choke points, China speaks of connectivity, trade and long-term infrastructure. Where some preach "rules" while reserving exemptions for themselves, Beijing emphasizes fairness and opposition to unilateral bullying.

In an increasingly uncertain world with accelerating conflicts, China seeks to safeguard sovereignty, uphold fairness and stand on the right side of history. Many countries increasingly find China's emphasis on peace, development and order more congenial than lectures paired with coercion.

Even after some Western countries spoke of "de-risking" with China in a bid to isolate it, China has sustained growth, expanded its technological capacity, deepened commercial ties and become more vital to diplomatic traffic. The attempted quarantine has only produced busier airport terminals for those arriving from overseas in Chinese cities.

Western strategists once warned against underestimating the power of patient states. The visitors to China are evidence that in a fractured world, countries gravitate toward gravity itself. China's rise in influence is an effect of scale, steadiness and the world’s appetite for stability.