China's economic slowdown: implications for Beijing's institutional power and global governance role

ABSTRACT

China's spectacular economic growth over the past decades has given rise to a more confident and proactive China in global governance. China is now an institution-builder, with new Chinese-led institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank designed to cement Beijing's central role in global economic governance. What, then, are the potential implications of a slowing economy for China's institutional power and global governance role? This article locates China's economic growth and slowdown in broader discussions about China's global position and questions about responsibility, order and governance. It argues that China's economic slowdown will not result in a drastic impact on Beijing's institutional power as there are key material, historical and ideational drivers at play here. Unless China is confronted with the prospect of an economic collapse, it will continue to pursue an active institutional role, speak the rhetoric of South–South solidarity with emerging economies and seek a leadership role in reforming global economic governance, even with a slowing economy, because this is intrinsically tied to its identity and how China now positions itself in an evolving global order.

KEYWORDS:

• Economic slowdown
• new normal
• China's foreign policy
• global governance
• institutional power
• Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Shaun Breslin and Carol Wise for their invitation to participate in workshops on China's economic slowdown. Previous versions of this article were also presented at the 57th ISA Convention in Baltimore and the Centre for Advanced International Studies (CAIS) seminar at the University of Exeter, and the author is grateful to the participants for their valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

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Beverley Loke

Beverley Loke is Lecturer in International Relations at the Department of Politics, University of Exeter. She received her PhD in International Relations from the Australian National University (ANU) and was previously a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where she was attached to the Power and Region in a Multipolar Order (PRIMO) programme. Her research has a strong focus on China, the international relations of the Asia-Pacific, international order and global governance, with a particular interest in conceptualisations of great power responsibility by China and the United States. She has published on these areas in peer-reviewed journals such as European Journal of International Relations, Asian Security, Diplomacy & Statecraft and the Australian Journal of International Affairs.