Interestingly, China is much more committed to some parts of the current international system than the US. You’ve probably all heard discourse over “rules based international norms”—which is international relations lingo for whatever suits the US at that particular moment—and international law which is much more based in international institutions and agreements between nations. China supports international law quite extensively, if you look at Chinese discourse on international issues they stress international laws and mutual agreements, while the US always mentions its “norms”.

In fact, if you’ve seen the latest wandering earth movie which just came out during Chinese new year in theaters, you would notice—among a plethora of other differences—that it’s very international and has the UN as the basis for a sci-fi world governing body. The movie as a whole is also very international, while it follows what happens in China, people from other countries speak their own languages, and there is a larger story than just what occurs in China. In the movie there is a very different message focused on cooperation and sacrifice for the greater and common good, as opposed to US individualist exceptionalism in superhero movies where only the goings on of North America are mentioned.

Quasi movie review assise—it really is worth the watch for any comrades reading—Beijing does champion internationalism, just a different one from the imperial core. While US “norms” are essentially excuses for US imperialism, China supports mutually beneficial projects and mutual agreement. If you want to see the different in position and rhetoric, I recommend reading some of the Global Times. It’s Chinese news that is more expressive of government ideas and plans than other news Chinese which is more strictly informative. Global Times also sometimes has excellent analysis.