The writer is director of the public opinion and foreign policy programme at the Lowy Institute
In America and China’s contest for global primacy, relative power is often judged through the lens of economic or military resources. But in at least one often overlooked measure of global reach — the size of diplomatic networks — China has been in the lead for years.
In 2019, the Lowy Institute’s Global Diplomacy Index revealed China had eclipsed the US in operating the world’s most expansive diplomatic network. By the end of 2023, as Joe Biden attempted to reassert US global leadership, the gap had narrowed again to only three diplomatic posts separating China (274) and the US (271).
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