Posts com a Tag ‘China Goes Global: The Partial Power (T)’

Today’s debate about the future of global order is marked by a near-certainty that China’s economy will overtake that of the United States within the next decade. Most analysts also believe that as a consequence, China will be able to challenge and eventually supplant the US as the global hegemon. We are heading, the story goes, towards a ‘Chinese world’.

David Shambaugh, Director of the China Program at George Washington University, disagrees. He argues that China “has a very long way to go before it becomes – if it ever becomes – a true global power.” According to him, “China will never rule the world.” The reason, according to the author, is not merely economic. The book argues that China lacks close friends or allies, and that China is not normatively integrated into the community of nations. It lacks a military network similar to that of the United States. Furthermore, its reactive foreign policy keep it from taking the initiative, leaving its diplomatic footprint smaller than its economic weight would suggest. Above all, China has no soft power – its cultural products fail to set global trends like that of the United States. Leia Mais