RISING CHINA, ASIA, AND THE GLOBAL SOUTH

ABSTRACT

Many see the Chinese economic miracle as an illustration of an alternative model of development to the neoliberal orthodoxy promoted by Washington. It is also assumed that China’s increasing economic and political involvement in the Global South, particularly in its neighboring countries in Asia, is creating a new geopolitical order challenging American domination. In this paper, I argue that China’s export-oriented developmental miracle is in fact a constitutive part of the global neoliberal order, and that China’s rise as a capital exporter is making it follow the footstep of preceding capitalist-imperialist powers to project its political influence overseas. This creates increasing anxiety among Chinese neighbors about a Chinese regional domination. It also puts China onto a course of collision with the US, which still dominates existing political-security order in the Asia-Pacific, precipitating a new inter-imperial competition.

KEYWORDS:
China; Asia; global south; neoliberal global order