client state

noun

|Updated on: 2 May 2018

Definition of client state

: a country that is economically, politically, or militarily dependent on another country

See client state defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of client state from the Web

Panicos Kaouris, president of the Cyprus China Business Association, shrugs off concerns that the onetime British territory may wind up becoming a client state of China.

— alan crawford, Bloomberg.com, "Everything Is for Sale in Cyprus, and China’s Buying," 24 Apr. 2018
Long-term, Moscow wants a reliable client state in the Middle East.

— ian bremmer, Time, "Why the Syrian Civil War Is Becoming Even More Complex," 6 Apr. 2018
Cuba was a client state of the Soviet Union and was under diplomatic and economic embargo by the United States for decades.

— kyle mizokami, Popular Mechanics, "Report: "Sonic" Injuries Against U.S. Diplomats in Cuba Are Real," 15 Feb. 2018
When the Soviets and Americans stopped funding client states, many belligerents sought other revenue streams, for example smuggling diamonds out of west African war-zones, says Sebastian von Einsiedel of the University of the UN in Tokyo.

— The Economist, "When the shooting stopsHow to stop countries sliding back into civil war," 18 Jan. 2018
The current standoff over North Korea’s nuclear provocations bears a more-than-passing resemblance to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the last time a nuclear-armed superpower client state and the U.S. faced off.

— nathaniel taplin, WSJ, "Why Markets Don’t Care About North Korea—Yet," 4 Sep. 2017
The danger of Qatar evolving into a full-fledged Iranian client state is vastly overblown; this is not something that the Al-Thani family would find palatable.

— WSJ, "End Qatar’s Policy of Strategic Ambiguity," 7 Aug. 2017
Later, as Presidents Kennedy and Johnson are forced to deploy troops in South Vietnam to protect their client state from a communist takeover, the filmmakers reveal both men’s secret doubts.

— The Economist, "A powerful new documentary series on the Vietnam war," 14 Sep. 2017
Russia may decide to help its client state Syria more as the result of this airstrike, frustrating further U.S. action.

— phillip carter, Slate Magazine, "Trump doesn’t know what he wants to do in Syria. He needs to figure it out—fast.," 7 Apr. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'client state.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.