A former U.S. ambassador has suggested that U.S. efforts to counter China have prompted the Chinese government to build up BRICS, the group of rising powers that is challenging the U.S.-led world order and drawing heavy criticism from Donald Trump.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum last month, former U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, who now co-chairs the Aspen Strategy Group, said that Chinese officials have pushed to enlarge BRICS because they feel threatened by U.S. military alliances and NATO’s growing role in the Indo-Pacific.

“I think they were threatened,” Burns said, referring to the thinking of Chinese leaders. “I felt it in my bones as I talked to them over the last couple of years.”

Background

In recent years, China has led a major effort to expand BRICS, the network of countries that is gaining prominence for its growing influence in world politics. Since its formation in 2009, BRICS has worked to empower developing countries by reforming U.S.-dominated international institutions and creating alternatives to them.

The organization’s name derives from its four original members, which are Brazil, Russia, India, and China. After South Africa joined the group in 2010, it became known as BRICS.

Although BRICS remains an informal network, it has pursued ambitious goals. One is to reform global governance. BRICS aspires to provide more countries with a say over matters of war and peace by expanding the UN Security Council.

The organization has also sought changes to the global economy. Its leaders have questioned the status of the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency. They favor a shift toward trade in other currencies, even proposing the creation of a BRICS currency as an alternative.

BRICS has posed a direct challenge to Western dominance of global financial institutions, such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and SWIFT messaging system. It is developing alternative financial systems, including the New Development Bank, Contingent Reserve Arrangement, and BRICS PAY messaging system.

Since China began working to expand the group in 2022, BRICS has welcomed several additional members, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia may become an official member as well.

Due to its recent growth, BRICS has quickly emerged as a formidable force in world politics, accounting for 40 percent of the world’s population and 40 percent of the global economy.

Experts are divided over the implications of BRICS for the United States and the world, but they acknowledge its potential to wield tremendous influence.

“In a way, the United States peaked, its empire peaked, and it is now being challenged,” economist Richard Wolff, who hosts the weekly program Economic Update, said last month. “Pay attention to the BRICS.”

U.S. Positions

As BRICS has expanded, posing a growing challenge to the power of the United States in the world, officials in Washington have responded in different ways.

During the Biden administration, officials displayed little interest in BRICS. When they spoke of the organization, they were largely dismissive of it.

“We are not looking at the BRICS as evolving into some kind of geopolitical rival to the United States or anyone else,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in 2023.

Top spokespersons for the Biden administration shared the same mindset, insisting that BRICS was neither a threat nor a geopolitical rival.

President Donald Trump has taken a different approach, however. Since he won the 2024 presidential election, Trump has repeatedly called attention to BRICS, criticizing its goals and threatening it with tariffs.

Trump has expressed particular concern over the possibility of BRICS dethroning the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency.

“The dollar is king,” Trump said last month. “We’re going to keep it that way.”

Still, Trump has not made BRICS one of his top priorities. Whenever he has criticized the organization, he has shown little understanding of its most basic features. The president has inaccurately claimed that Spain is a member of BRICS, repeatedly misstated the number of member states in BRICS, and falsely claimed that the organization “is dead” and “broke up” due to his tariff threats.

At one point earlier this year, Trump even acknowledged that he did not understand the relationship between China and BRICS.

“I don’t even know that they’re a member of BRICS,” he said, referring to China.

Getting Burned

Trump may have taken a different approach to BRICS than the Biden administration, but he has remained consistent on one key factor. The president has remained quiet about how U.S. actions toward China have played a role in the group’s expansion.

When former U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns spoke about his diplomatic experiences at the Aspen Security Forum last month, he noted with unusual candor that Chinese officials moved to expand BRICS because they felt threatened by the United States.

The United States, Burns explained, had been working closely with its allies in Europe and Asia to coordinate their approaches toward China, leading to growing concerns in Beijing about U.S. intentions.

Among the United States and its allies, there was consensus “about how to push back against China as well as work with it from the EU and NATO as well as the Indo-Pacific allies,” Burns said. “The Chinese felt threatened.”

Although Burns did not go into detail about U.S. actions, he gestured at two major U.S. policies that were undertaken by the Biden administration and remain in place today.

One is the reinforcement of U.S. military alliances in the Indo-Pacific. The United States is strengthening its hub-and-spoke model, which positions the United States as a dominant hub that exercises its power through several spokes, such as U.S. partners and treaty allies.

Another is the growing role of NATO in the Indo-Pacific. Although NATO is a transatlantic military alliance, U.S. officials have been pushing the organization to play a more prominent role in the Indo-Pacific for the purpose of countering China.

“What did they try to do?” Burns asked, after noting that Chinese leaders felt threatened by U.S. maneuvers. “They tried to build the BRICS up.”

Notably, Burns was largely dismissive of China’s actions, just as leading officials in the Biden administration had been. Burns argued that BRICS does not compare to the network of alliances that the United States maintains around the world.

“The BRICS isn’t a competitor to this incredible alliance system that every president has built up since the Second World War,” he said.

Still, Burns indicated that the United States should be careful. He expressed concern about the manner in which Trump constantly disparages U.S. allies, particularly his threats to their sovereignty.

“You can’t make our allies feel subservient to the United States,” Burns said.

Although Burns expressed confidence in U.S. power, including the Trump administration’s moves to confront China, his points about Trump, China, and BRICS brought several fundamental issues into the open.

One is that the U.S. foreign policy establishment remains highly concerned about Trump. Like Burns, many U.S. experts fear that Trump’s tactics may not only weaken U.S. alliances but also prompt more countries to join BRICS.

The more important issue, however, is that U.S. policies are threatening to China. Rather than facilitating peaceful cooperation among nations, the leaders of the United States are taking actions that are leading China to push back against the United States.

“The Chinese were threatened by the strength of the allies pushing together against them,” Burns said.

Indeed, the leaders of the United States are fully aware that their policies are prompting China to respond, just as it has been doing for the past several years by working to expand BRICS.

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