At 100 Years Old, China’s Communist Party Still Can’t Get Along with Its Next-Door Neighbors

As China’s Communist Party celebrates turning 100 next week, it is facing unprecedented challenges, largely of its own making. It is also facing tremendous international scrutiny and backlash on a wide array of fronts, from forced internment of Muslim Uyghurs and other minorities in China’s northwest Xinjiang region, to aggressive posturing in the South China Sea, and to the origins and spread of the novel coronavirus that has sickened and killed so many around the world.

One would think, though, that at 100, the CCP would at least know how to maintain good relations with its neighbors, especially when it wants so much from them. Sadly, that has not been the case in Central Asia.

As reported in The Diplomat, last year Pew Research issued a report entitled “Unfavorable Views of China Reach Historic Highs in Many Countries.” The report detailed Pew’s empirical research indicating that the public perception of China in 14 largely Western and advanced economy nations has declined dramatically. Given the growing realization that China intends to maintain its lack of transparency over both the genesis as well as the international spread of COVID-19, it’s hardly surprising that perceptions of China within already-disillusioned countries have plummeted.

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