China as a ‘rising power’: why the status quo matters

Abstract

China’s material interests are in a stable global order, given the immense benefits that Beijing has enjoyed under extant conditions. Although some accounts seek to portray China as a revisionist power, this is not consistent with the interests of China’s growing economy or its transnational elites. Rather, Beijing requires that the status quo remains, at least when it comes to the basic economic underpinnings of the global system. Given some of the contradictions within the Chinese economy, a calm global order whereby China seeks to resolve its problems is critical for Beijing. Thus China can be expected to continue to support and contribute to the global capitalist system, rather than seek to change it in any meaningful fashion.

Keywords:

• China
• neoliberalism
• class
• transnationalisation
• status quo

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the editors at Third World Quarterly for their care after what happened; it is very much appreciated.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 See, for example, Unnikrishnan and Saran, BRIC in the New World Order.

2 Shaw, Cooper and Chin, “Emerging Powers and Africa.”

3 Flemes, Regional Leadership in the Global System.

4 Mearsheimer, Tragedy of Great Power Politics.

5 Allison, Destined for War.

6 Art, “United States and the Rise of China,” 362.

7 EC Economy, “Game Changer.”

8 See, for example, Kynge, China Shakes the World; Kissinger, On China; Zhang, China Wave; Brook, Great State; Khoo, China’s Foreign Policy Since 1978.

9 Starrs, “Chimera of Global Convergence,” 81.

10 Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1, 205–208.

11 Robinson, “Transnational State and the BRICS,” 2.

12 Taylor, “Transnationalizing Capitalist Hegemony.”

13 See Gray and Murphy, “Introduction: Rising Powers”; Hameiri and Jones, “Rising Powers and State Transformation.”

14 See Chance, China and the Credit Crisis; Khanna, Second World; Prasad and Kose, Emerging Markets; O’Neill, Growth Map; Ministry of Finance, Government of India, BRICS Report; de Coning, Mandrup and Odgaard, BRICS and Coexistence.

15 Chase-Dunn, “BRICS and the Potentially Progressive Semi-Periphery,” 2.

16 Calhoun and Derluguian, Aftermath.

17 Cohen and DeLong, End of Influence.

18 Held and Roger, Global Governance at Risk.

19 Mahbubani, Has China Won?

20 Taylor, “BRICS in Africa and Human Rights,” 301.

21 Gray and Murphy, “Introduction: Rising Powers,” 184.

22 Zakaria, Post-American World and the Rise of the Rest.

23 Nye, Is the American Century Over?

24 See also Amsden, Rise of "the Rest," for an earlier statement of the theme.

25 King, Losing Control.

26 Ibid.

27 Kissinger, World Order.

28 Jacques, When China Rules the World.

29 See, for example, Gu, “Confucian Ethics and the Spirit of World Order”; Wu, “Confucian Holistic World Order.”

30 Arrighi, Adam Smith in Beijing, 10.

31 Rucki, “Global Economic Crisis and China’s Challenge.”

32 Strange, “China’s Post-Listian Rise.”

33 See Ramo, Beijing Consensus.

34 Halper, Beijing Consensus.

35 See, for example, Yao, “End of the Beijing Consensus.”

36 Huang, “Rethinking the Beijing Consensus.”

37 Hsueh, China’s Regulatory State, 3–4.

38 Andreas, “Changing Colours in China,” 133–134.

39 Foot and Walter, China, the United States, and Global Order, 299.

40 Karp, “China’s Development Experience.”

41 Kennedy, “Myth of the Beijing Consensus,” 462.

42 Hart-Landsberg, Capitalist Globalization, 87.

43 Hall and Soskice, Varieties of Capitalism.

44 Harvey, Brief History of Neoliberalism.

45 Guthrie, China and Globalization.

46 Goodman, Class in Contemporary China.

47 Zhao, “Transnational Capital, the Chinese State.”

48 Lin, China and Global Capitalism.

49 Mulvad, “Xiism as a Hegemonic Project in the Making.”

50 Lo and Zhang, “Making Sense of China’s Economic Transformation,” 52.

51 Unger and Chan, “State Corporatism and Business Associations in China.”

52 Harris, “Outward Bound: Transnational Capitalism in China,” 14.

53 Breslin, China and the Global Political Economy, 179.

54 So, “Beyond the Logic of Capital and the Polarization Model.”

55 de Graaff, “China Inc. Goes Global.”

56 Poulantzas, State, Power, Socialism, 138.

57 Vermeiren and Dierckx, “Challenging Global Neoliberalism?”

58 Breslin, “Globalization, International Coalitions and Domestic Reform.”

59 Hart-Landsberg and Burkett, “China and the Dynamics of Transnational Accumulation,” 4.

60 “Full Text: Keynote Speech by President Xi Jinping.”

61 Hart-Landsberg, Capitalist Globalization, 65.

62 See, for example, Chan, Lee and Chan, China Engages Global Governance.

63 See Johnston, Social States.

64 Breslin, “Power and Production,” 739.

65 Pieterse, “China’s Contingencies and Globalisation.”

66 Liang, “China: Globalization and the Emergence,” 133.

67 Xi, The Governance of China, Vol. II, 62.

68 “Full Text: Xi Jinping’s Keynote Speech at the World Economic Forum.”

69 See Taylor, Africa Rising?

70 Liang, “China: Globalization and the Emergence,” 133.

71 Hart-Landsberg, “US Economy and China,” 17.

72 Breslin, “China and the Global Order,” 629.

73 Breslin, China and the Global Political Economy.

74 Scott, China Stands Up.

75 Kiely, “Spatial Hierarchy and/or Contemporary Geopolitics,” 244.

76 ‘qiu tong cun yi’ is an ancient Chinese philosophy that can be traced back to the Book of Rites (475 to 221 BCE), and it has been a principle of modern Chinese diplomacy since the 1955 Bandung Conference. See, for example, Permanent Mission of The PRC to The UN and Other International Organizations in Vienna, “China Talks About China–US High-Level Strategic Dialogue.”

77 Taylor and Zajontz, “In a Fix: Africa’s Place in the Belt and Road Initiative,” 279.

78 Trading Economics, “China Average Yearly Wages.”

79 See Gaulard, “Marxist Approach of the Middle-Income Trap in China.”

80 Li, “Endless Accumulation, Limits to Growth,” 168.

81 Cho, “One in Three Chinese Listed Companies.”

82 CEIC, “China Gross Fixed Capital Formation.”

83 Zhu, China’s Guaranteed Bubble.

84 Trading Economics, “China Foreign Exchange Reserves.”

85 Carmody, Taylor, and Zajontz, “China’s Spatial Fix and ‘Debt Diplomacy,’” 6.

86 “Keynote Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum.”

87 “Facts and Figures: Belt and Road Initiative.”

88 Yao, “End of the Beijing Consensus.”

89 So and Chu, “Transition from Neoliberalism to State Neoliberalism.”

90 Rucki, “Global Economic Crisis and China’s Challenge to Global Hegemony,” 348.

91 See Chu and So, “State Neoliberalism: The Chinese Road to Capitalism.”

92 See Harris, “Statist Globalization in China.”

93 McNally, “Chaotic Mélange,” 284.

94 Hart-Landsberg and Burkett, China and Socialism.

95 Hart-Landsberg, Capitalist Globalization, 46.

96 Harris, “Statist Globalization in China,” 16–17.

97 Schmalz and Ebenau, “After Neoliberalism?,” 493.

98 See Larçon, Chinese Multinationals.

99 Ren, “Reform-Minded Status Quo Power?,” 2025.

100 Medeiros, “Is Beijing Ready for Global Leadership?”

101 Steinfeld, Playing Our Game, 231.

102 Artner, “Can China Lead the Change of the World?” 1896.

103 Kupchan, “Playing Our Game,” 368.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ian Taylor

Ian Taylor (1969–2021) was Professor of international relations and African political economy in the School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, and Chair Professor in the School of International Studies, Renmin University of China in Beijing. He published well over 100 academic works including 12 books and 84 articles, as well as a number of book chapters, reviews, reports and so forth. He was invited to present his research in 55 different countries, ranging from Estonia to New Zealand, North Korea to Argentina, and his work has been translated into Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Throughout his extraordinary career, Ian taught courses at all university levels, and supervised 19 PhD students to successful completion, including the co-author of this article. He was and still is loved by all his family, friends, colleagues and students, and everyone who has read this far should know that Ian was famous for being the man who taught Lieutenant General Kennedy Kamoli who later led the coup d’état in Lesotho in 2014 (his own claim).

Zhangxi Cheng

Zhangxi Cheng is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He holds a PhD from the University of St Andrews and an MSc from the University of Bristol. His book co-authored with Prof. Ian Taylor, entitled China’s Aid to Africa: Does Friendship Really Matter?, was published by Routledge in 2017. Focusing largely on China’s foreign aid and its broadly defined economic cooperation in Africa, his research now looks specifically into the social changes on the continent as a result of those policies.