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China and Inner Asia
Maria Repnikova
Communication
Georgia State University, United States
Andrew Mertha
Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, United States
Nicholas Loubere
Lund University, United States
Ho-Fung Hung
Johns Hopkins University, United States
Hong Zhang
Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, United States
Maria Repnikova
Communication
Georgia State University, United States
Abstract:
The recent emergence of ‘Global China’ has been characterized by the increasing politico-economic assertiveness of the Chinese government and by the globalisation of Chinese capital. These features have been subjected to intense (and increasingly suspicious) scrutiny. Political, media, and popular discourses about Global China are replete with dire warnings of debt-trap development, new colonialism with Chinese characteristics, export of China’s authoritarian model, and China’s deliberate strategy to displace Western hegemony. Academic research thus far has only presented a partial corrective to these narratives. While ‘Global China’ is a rapidly expanding research field, the existing studies emphasize state-driven and formal initiatives, as well as top-down and ahistorical analytical frameworks. What emerges, either implicitly or explicitly, depicts a monolithic China pushing forward a coherent, top-down, state-led global strategy. This narrative fails to capture the complex behaviour and history of Global China, including the diverse, spontaneous, and uncoordinated political and capital-producing initiatives.
This roundtable will provide a forum to present new scholarship that seeks to untangle and theorize the complexity and diversity of Global China. Specifically it presents two key initiatives: The Cambridge University Press Global China Elements Series and The People’s Map of Global China. The roundtable participants deliberately focus on the mechanics or processes of different facets of Global China, from soft power to overseas investment to informal and bottom up engagements. Maria Repnikova will introduce key themes from her forthcoming book Chinese Soft Power (Cambridge Elements), including how Chinese scholars themselves conceive of this idea, and how it is implemented and disrupted globally. Ivan Franceschini and Nicholas Loubere will discuss their forthcoming book Global China as Method (Cambridge Elements), which seeks to present a framework for situating manifestations of Global China in global capitalism. Stella Hong Zhang (along with Ivan and Nicholas) will present the People’s Map of Global China, a new platform aimed at tracking China’s complex and rapidly changing international activities by engaging an equally global civil society. Ho-Fung Hung will discuss his forthcoming book Clash of Empires (Cambridge Elements), focusing on the corporate origins and geopolitical prospects of US-China competition for global power from a historical-comparative perspective.