China and the “Asia-Pacific Century” in International Politics: An Introduction

This article examines key issues concerning China’s rise to great-power status in the 2000s and its implications for the International Relations discipline. The existing IR scholarship deals with questions concerning the nature of the Sino-US power transition, whether this rivalry constitutes a new type of Cold War, or whether it will eventually lead to open warfare between China and the US. Other points of discussion include the relevance of the China Model across different parts of the world and its potential role in authoritarian diffusion. China’s rise also requires an examination of the country’s economic impact abroad, and particularly in the Global South. While the Western world, by and large, considers China’s rise a threat, developing countries tend to view it as an opportunity. Nevertheless, China’s trade and investment ties to Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia have far more complex outcomes than the generic titles “mutual gain” or “debt trap” suggest.