Does China have structural power? Rethinking the Chinese role in the international order” Journal of North-East Asian History

International relations (IR) theory has produced two main assessments of the effects of the rise of China. Realists have argued that it will generate a structural tension that will inevitably lead to increasing competition between China and the United States. Liberals have highlighted how China has been socialized to the contemporary rule-based international order. The paper argues that these two assessments of the Chinese rise either downplay the role of Chinese power, in the case of liberalism, or build their theorizations on an anachronistic and oversimplified conceptualization of Chinese power, as with structural realism. The article looks at Chinese structural power analyzing cases such as the progressive internationalization of the renminbi and China’s recent attempts to build regional institutions in the economic and financial realm centred on its leadership. The article describes how Beijing is increasingly capable of dictating terms of political and economic interaction to its partners.