US–China relations and the liberal world order: contending elites, colliding visions?

that China will come to act as what Schweller and Pu have called a 'spoiler' of the system, seeking to overthrow the rules-based liberal world order. 6 Others, however, have highlighted the fact that to date China has actually been largely adapting to the liberal rules of the game as formulated within US-dominated global institutions rather than challenging them, acting as a supporter of the current system. 7 China's compliance with WTO rules is a case in point. 8 The question thus remains to what extent and how China is adapting to or confronting the liberal order-and US power and position within that order-which in turn is both influenced by and shaping the way in which the United States itself is responding to China's rise.