The president of a center chartered by Congress that gives policymakers nonpartisan counsel and insights on global issues has contended that the People’s Republic of China should not ask for developing nation status if it wants to be respected as a great power.
Mark Green, president of the Wilson Center based in Washington, D.C., said in a blog that China has several things going for it to make it appear that it’s a great power, even though the United Nations treats it as a developing country.
“The People’s Republic of China is the world’s second largest economy, ranks in the top five nations for trade and foreign investment, has the world’s largest number of middle-class consumers, and provides an estimated $3 billion per year in foreign aid expenditures,” Green said in the blog.
China gets beneficial treatment because of its classification as a developing economy. For example, its annual U.N. budget assessment was reduced by nearly $50 million in 2023. Other benefits include the World Bank giving China “billions in loans.”
“China is the world’s biggest annual contributor to planet warming emissions, yet its diplomats rejected public demands for China to join a coalition of more than 150 nations in pledging to curb both methane, and establish a fund to help compensate vulnerable countries for the cost of climate change mitigations,” Green said. “While China often calls for the West and other rich nations to take more responsibility on global challenges, a number of analysts suggested China wouldn’t join other pledging nations because contributing to the establishment of such a fund would set the precedent that it accepted the responsibilities of a developed nation.”
Green said many argue that China should keep its developing country designation because approximately “600 million Chinese live below the poverty line.”
“But China has a major space program, the world’s largest navy, and a rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal,” Green said. “It demands that the United States treat it as a peer power and presents itself as a leader of a new global order that can rival or surpass that led by the United States.”
For its part, the U.S. House of Representatives passed on March 27 the “PRC Is Not a Developing Country Act,” which would direct the Secretary of State to “‘pursue’ altering the status of the People’s Republic of China from "developing country" to "upper middle income country," "high income country" or "developed country" for international organizations that include both the U.S. and China, and propose a mechanism to do so,” The Hill reported.
“Additionally, it would direct the top diplomat to work ‘to ensure that the People’s Republic of China does not receive preferential treatment or assistance within the organization as a result of it having the status of a developing country,’” The Hill said.
Green said the Secretary of State doesn’t have “power to unilaterally change China’s classification.”
