China needs to adapt to a more competitive global environment driven by market power, technological innovation and institutional leverage, according to analysts at a leading Beijing-based think tank.
These pillars were more critical than conventional military dominance or strengthening territorial control in the great power rivalry, particularly as Beijing sought to project itself as a stabiliser in an increasingly fractured international order, the analysts added.
“Market appeal, technological innovation and institutional influence are becoming the core metrics of competition, reshaping how states pursue power and legitimacy,” he said in a review published on Tuesday by the Beijing-based think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security .
Fu attributed this shift to a new wave of technological and industrial transformation driven by advances in artificial intelligence , new energy, biotechnology and digital infrastructure.
He said these factors were rapidly reconfiguring global supply chains and innovation networks and exposing the limits of an international order built around Western industrial and financial dominance.