The latest news on this front comes from a really interesting article by Democracy Digest.

Globally, China’s reputation has deteriorated significantly since 2012 stemming from a perception of financial, diplomatic, and military bullying as well as blowback from the increasingly naked geostrategic ambitions of the current regime, notes Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at the CSIS.

The European Union, for example, has realized that it needs a serious strategic partnership with Beijing to match the country’s muscular global ambitions, Carnegie’s Judy Dempsey writes. China has evolved from a manufacturer of cheap goods to a powerful economic and political competitor. The EU’s founding principles of democracy and civil liberties contrast starkly with China’s one-party system, and its use of AI and cyber security tools.

The latest case of China’s sharp elbows sees the Communist regime pressuring Mongolia over the issue of the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, posing a threat to its neighbor’s democracy and sovereignty.

When the Tibetan spiritual leader visited the country in 2016, Beijing blocked trade and forced the government to agree there would be no future visits, notes Michael J. Green, senior vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a professor at Georgetown University. Now, Beijing is quietly threatening further sanctions if Mongolia does not turn to the Chinese Communist Party’s eventual choice of the next Dalai Lama—something devout Buddhists in the country would never accept, he writes for Foreign Policy:

Get full story here.