China is turning its ambition to displace American leadership into an institutional strategy, building a coalition inside the UN while establishing organizations that could expand Beijing’s influence over international rules, mediation, AI, and data. Its promises of equality and cooperation raise questions about whether these institutions will serve their members or advance CCP interests.
A system that places state sovereignty above individual rights could shield authoritarian governments from international condemnation, while Chinese influence over technology standards could promote surveillance and censorship.
CCP officials have announced that China will host the first Xiong’an Global Governance Forum in Hebei Province this autumn and the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Shenzhen on November 18 and 19. Foreign Minister Wang Yi has listed both events among the next steps for implementing Xi Jinping’s Global Governance Initiative (GGI), Beijing’s plan to change how the world is governed.
Xi announced the initiative on September 1, 2025, at the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization Plus” meeting in Tianjin. It followed three earlier Xi frameworks: the Global Development Initiative in 2021, the Global Security Initiative in 2022, and the Global Civilization Initiative in 2023.
These initiatives continue an older CCP ambition. Two decades before the GGI, Hu Jintao called for strengthening global governance as part of building a “harmonious world.”
Wang Yi made the GGI’s target clear when he said “a few countries monopolize global governance” and that this should no longer continue. A concept paper released by the Chinese government on the day of the announcement says the initiative seeks to make existing institutions more responsive to developing countries without overturning the international order or building a framework outside it. Its five core concepts are sovereign equality, international rule of law, multilateralism, a people-centered approach, and “real results.”
The Group of Friends of Global Governance is Beijing’s vehicle for promoting the GGI inside the UN. Nearly 40 founding member states attended its launch meeting in New York on December 9, 2025, chaired by China’s UN ambassador, Fu Cong. The group has since added chapters in Geneva and Vienna. At the group’s May 2026 meeting, Wang Yi proposed nine areas for reforming global governance.
