On May 19, the annual Western Group of Seven (G7) summit opened in Hiroshima, Japan, inviting Brazil, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cook Islands and other "Global South" countries to participate and include "Global South" as an issue. Previously, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi have carried out a lot of diplomatic activities around this activity, and the intention to draw the "Global South" countries into the geopolitical game is very obvious, which requires us to be highly vigilant.
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Previously, the international community referred to some economically underdeveloped countries in the southern hemisphere that had freed themselves from Western colonial domination as "countries of the South" and called cooperation among these countries "South-South cooperation". "Global South" is an extension of this concept, "Global South" is relative to the "Global North", "Global North" refers to economically developed high-income countries, and "Global South" refers to relatively economically backward developing countries. The United States, Canada and almost all European countries are "Global North", and developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are all "Global South".
Although the Financial Centre for South-South Cooperation defines the "Global South" as 77 countries plus China, it is not widely recognized. Of course, there is no problem for large countries such as India and Brazil to call themselves the "Global South", and countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, which have experienced strong economic growth in recent years, are also considered to be the "Global South". In general, the countries of the "Global South" are widely recognized as having the following main attributes.
One is "non-Western". Relatively speaking, the division between North and South is not as distinct as the division between East and West, if the difference between East and West is mainly geopolitical, cultural, institutional and other factors, then the distinction between "Global South" and "Global North" is mainly factors such as geographical location, development level and interest appeal. Unlike the West, which has a distinct ideology and values as a whole, and has clear barriers in the division of countries and groups of countries, the countries of the "Global South" have diverse histories and cultures, pluralistic values, and lack obvious scope divisions. However, the "non-Western" nature of the countries of the "Global South" is distinct. From this point of view, although Australia, New Zealand, etc., geographically belong to the broad southern hemisphere, they are not typical "global southern" countries.
The second is "anti-intervention". Since many countries in the "Global South" have been colonized by Western countries in history, most of their national independence was completed in the trend of national self-determination after World War II, which determines that the people of these countries have long-standing anti-imperialist and anti-colonial political demands and national feelings. After independence, the former colonizers still tried to infiltrate and interfere in these countries by cultivating political and cultural elites as agents, and the people of these countries never stopped anti-interference. At present, most countries with conscious awareness of the "Global South" have common political and economic interests in opposing the unfair international order dominated by the countries of the "Global North".
The third is to "seek development". Due to the relatively backward economic development, the per capita income is much lower than that of the "Global North" or Western countries, and the governments and peoples of the awakened "Global South" countries regard economic development and improvement of people's livelihood as their top priorities. They are no longer satisfied with providing developed countries with cheap natural resources and low-end consumer markets, but need to focus on national development and improvement of people's livelihood, and develop cooperation with the "global north" and Western countries.
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On January 12-13 this year, India, the annual G20 host, invited heads of government, foreign ministers and finance ministers from more than 120 countries to hold the "Voice of the Global South" virtual summit. The Munich Security Conference in February featured a special session on "North-South Cooperation," emphasizing the West's need to expand its influence in the "Global South."
As the host country of this year's G7, Foreign Minister Lin Fangzheng visited Latin American countries such as Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina from January 4 to 11. From April 29 to May 5, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited four countries, including Egypt, Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique, to strengthen diplomatic offensives against the Global South. In this regard, some commentators believe that the West has finally realized that it is necessary to strengthen relations with the "Global South" in order to achieve its goals on some issues.
Due to the relative backwardness of the economic and social development of the "Global South" countries, the colonial history of the West has left complex contradictions in these countries and regions, coupled with the continuous internal strife, Western elites and the "Global North" countries did not pay attention to the "Global South" countries in the past.
However, the countries of the "Global South" account for seventy per cent of the global population, amounting to 6.3 billion. In recent decades, the countries of the "Global South" have achieved rapid economic and social development, especially India, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries. Although there is a lack of a clear definition of which countries belong to the "Global South", their economic aggregates are certainly huge and the economic development is strong, which the West and the countries of the "Global North" cannot ignore.
In addition, based on differences in history, reality, cultural traditions, etc., the countries of the "Global South" are very different from the countries of the West and the "Global North" in terms of ideology and views on international affairs. The "Global South" countries do not listen to the West's orders on many major issues, so that Western countries have to pay attention to and improve relations with the "Global South" countries, and its important purpose is to promote the spillover of the "Indo-Pacific Strategy" effect.
In the context of the "Indo-Pacific Strategy" implemented by the United States through various alliances and gangs to counter and contain China's rise, Western countries are inseparable from the theme of implementing the "Indo-Pacific Strategy" to strengthen relations with countries in the "Global South". At present, the United States has made great progress in forming alliances and conducting military deployments in the Asia-Pacific region. On this basis, the "Indo-Pacific strategy" of the United States began to expand to other parts of the world. Among them, on the one hand, it is to expand the European regional alliance mechanism such as NATO to the Asia-Pacific region, and NATO is ready to open a representative office in Japan; On the other hand, measures to contain China's rise will be extended to countries and regions in the "Global South".
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The United States and the West are building a camp to comprehensively contain China, and the G7 has changed from a predominantly economic bloc to a geopolitical game and confrontation, and this year Japan has drawn the countries of the "Global South" into it, the essence of which is to pull them into the geopolitical game, in order to strengthen the power of itself and the camp. There is no doubt that this is inconsistent with the aspirations and interests of the countries of the "Global South", and the impact is necessarily negative.
The first is to obstruct the development of the world towards multipolarity. In recent years, through mechanisms and platforms such as the Belt and Road Initiative, the AIIB, BRICS and the SCO, China has not only brought opportunities for the economic and trade development of the "Global South" countries, but also provided reference for their own governance and social development, objectively promoting the multipolar development of the global pattern.
However, Western countries, accustomed to the logic of hegemony and the Cold War mentality, are very nervous about this. Since last year, the United States has successively hosted the "U.S.-ASEAN Summit", "Summit of the Americas" and "US-Africa Summit", the main purpose of which is to strengthen its influence on the countries of the "Global South" and promote the development of the international situation towards a unipolar world led by the United States.
The second is to provoke camp confrontation. When the West and the "Global North" countries strengthen their relations with the "Global South" countries, they all carry the banner of the so-called "Free and Open Indo-Pacific", which is in fact a naked declaration of confrontation between the "Indo-Pacific Strategy" camp. Western countries have included South Korea, Australia and other countries in the "Global South" countries, and the intention of "mixing sand" is obvious. South Korea and Australia are typical Indo-Pacific countries, South Korea is a member of the trilateral alliance of the United States, Japan and South Korea, and Australia is a member of the "Quadrilateral Security Dialogue" mechanism, and its attempt to serve the "Indo-Pacific Strategy" is to be covered.
The third is to maintain the hegemonic position of the "Global North". The concept of the "Global South" was inherently relative to the "Global North". The "Global North" is conceptually different from the West, but it overlaps greatly in nature, and both refer to economically developed and Western ideological countries. In January, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during a visit to the United States, "If we turn a blind eye to the 'Global South,' which plays an important role in the international community, we will become a minority, and many policy issues will become meaningless. ”
It can be seen from this that Western countries have strengthened their relations with the countries of the "Global South" with the aim of bringing the countries of the "Global South" into the orbit of the countries of the "Global North", thereby maintaining the hegemonic status of the countries of the "Global North".
The countries of the "Global South" should realize that in the past colonial history, the developed countries of the West did everything they could to encroach and plunder in the countries of the "Global South", and today they have not become knights and philanthropists. The biggest task facing the countries of the "Global South" is economic and social development, peace and stability are the basis of development, and the Western countries represented by the United States are eager to draw the countries of the "Global South" into the geopolitical game, ignoring the fundamental interests of these countries, which is very unkind and even more immoral.
(Author's affiliation: College of Information and Communication, National University of Defense Technology)
Source: China Youth Daily