Collection 

China: strategy, influence and power

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Closed
Submission deadline

As the world’s largest trading power and greatest source of global lending, China already occupies a central position on the international stage. It boasts the world’s largest population and military, and has become a global centre of innovation. Most analysts predict that China’s GDP at market exchange rates will exceed that of the USA by 2030, making it the largest economy in the world. How China responds to shared global challenges increasingly has profound implications for the rest of the world, as evidenced by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since the early 2010s, as China’s economic and military clout has grown, so too has its ambition and ability to shape the global governance system to align with its priorities and values. The country has taken on a bigger role in international institutions, been more vocal about its increasing influence, and begun to lay the groundwork to establish its own institutions and ambitious projects, notably the Belt and Road Initiative.

Many analysts continue to question whether Beijing’s longer term objective is to bring into being a radically transformed international order—or to simply push for adjustments to the current one, advancing interests and preferences without fundamentally transforming the global system and transnational institutions.

This Collection aims to analyse China’s current and evolving place on the global stage. Research that considers the country’s strategy, influence and exercise of power in the following areas are particularly welcome: global health, internet governance, global governance, climate change, and development finance. Perspectives on issues such as foreign affairs, military conflicts, and human rights, among others, are also invited.

Contributions are encouraged from a range of vantage points, including but not restricted to, international relations, political science, economics and finance, development studies, history and cultural studies.

Submissions should clearly connect to any of the core themes ‘strategy, influence or power’. Papers that do not meet this criterion can be considered for publication in the journal’s general section.

Great Wall Of China on a foggy autumn day. The leaves on the trees have turned red.

Editors

Alvin Camba is an Assistant Professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. He is a Faculty Affiliate at the Center for International Environment & Resource Policy and the Climate Policy Lab at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Dr Camba studies the political economy of development, examining how countries in the Global South make political and economic choices in the context of China’s rise. His research has been awarded best research paper awards by several academic networks, published in top development and political economy journals, and consulted by Southeast Asian politicians. He has also contributed to widely circulated think tank policy papers on China’s activities in Southeast Asia.

 

Alexandre Cesar Cunha Leite is an Associate Professor at Paraíba State University, Brazil, a Professor in the Graduate Program of International Relations, PPGRI/UEPB (Paraíba State University), Professor in the Graduate Program of Public Management and International Cooperation, PGPCI/UFPB (Paraíba Federal University), and a Professor in the Graduate Program of International Relations, PPGRI/PUCMINAS. He is the Coordinator of the Group of Studies and Research in Asia-Pacific and Creator of SACIAR. He develops studies in International Political Economy; Brazilian Economy; Asian Studies and International Cooperation between countries.

 

Steve Tsang is the Director of the SOAS China Institute, London, and an Emeritus Fellow of St Antony’s College, Oxford, UK. Prof Tsang regularly contributes to public debates on different aspects of issues related to the politics, history, foreign policy, security, and development of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and East Asia more generally. He is known for his work on Hong Kong and for introducing the concept of 'consultative Leninism' as an analytical framework to understand the structure and nature of politics in contemporary China.

 

 

Wilfred Yang Wang is a Lecturer in Media and Communications Studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His research focuses on data and algorithmic governance, the biopolitics of ageing, diasporic media, digital geography, and China. Wilfred’s recent projects focus on the digital infrastructural buildings and governance in China and Australia with specific attention to the biopolitical governance of ageing bodies in a digital era.