China’s Global Security Initiative and Its Reception in the Global South

With its Global Security Initiative (GSI), China has positioned itself as a global security actor. Launched in 2022, the initiative primarily emphasises internal control and stability. However, through international activities, China is externalising this understanding of security. How is the GSI perceived in key Global South regions, and what does it mean for the international security architecture?

• While the West views the initiative critically, it is perceived largely positively among elites in many countries of the Global South. In Southeast Asia, East Africa, and the Middle East, states are searching for alternative security partners to the United States – an environment from which China benefits.

• Through the GSI, China is increasingly externalising its own understanding of security, which is based on control and regime stability. Whereas Western actors primarily focus on military cooperation for external defence, China sees its comparative advantage in offering measures aimed at enhancing internal security.

• A key component of the GSI is therefore China’s expansion of international police cooperation, including the export of security and surveillance technologies. In the long term, this entails the risk that China will gain greater political influence and reshape regional security structures and standards according to its own preferences.

Policy Implications

Germany must intensify efforts to identify alternative security partners in the Global South. This requires stronger German and European security offerings as well as credible signals of increased security policy engagement. At the same time, Germany should intensify bilateral dialogue with China on “hard” security issues and questions of order, and work toward a coherent EU position on China.

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