A systematic re-examination of The China Threat Theory in a multi-polarizing world

Abstract

The China Threat Theory has been vigorously resurfacing since early 2000s due to the dramatic rise of China in recent decades, especially after its accession into the WTO in 2001. China’s seemingly miraculous rise has sparked provocative controversies, heated debates and harsh accusations of various kinds from a large number of competing stances of viewpoints in all parts of the world. My PhD thesis intends to provide a more holistic and systematic analysis of the so-called China Threat Theory from multiple angles in order to give my readers and audiences a clearer, more rational and in-depth understanding about China’s true strengths and weaknesses as a rapidly transforming nation-state with strong sense of national pride and unfulfilled ambition and the uncertainties and challenges ahead of China’s unique pathway of development and modernization and idiosyncratic mode of governance and statecraft.

My thesis introduces an original analytical model by the name of the Strategic Filtration Model with the theoretical and practical functionalities to guide sensible decision-making at the national leadership-level to ensure strategic priorities are secured and achieved under the twin pressures of the internal imperatives and external impacts. My arguments and analyses reflect my critical understandings and syntheses of the neo-realist, neo-institutionalist and constructionist theorizations in the fields of political economy and international relations. I appreciate reality and truth over idealism and rhetorical embellishment. I observe and evaluate political-economic discourses and phenomena in relation to The China Threat Theory through the lenses of power struggles over interests (of whatever self-defined or collectively defined forms and representations) at subnational, national and international levels and sophisticated strategic gaming among powerful state actors.

The inflammatory China Threat Theory is not a yes or no question to begin with. China’s future success as a rejuvenating, ancient Eastern civilization is also not guaranteed. The complexities and intricateness that are intimately associated with the ramifications of the (continuous or interrupted) rise of China should be seriously recognized and treated with great intellectual and academic cautions and rigors. My thesis contributes in this regard with significant criticalities and ingenuities.

Key words: The China Threat Theory; Chinese political economy and China-related international relations; Sino-US competition and rivalry; multi-polarization and de- or re-globalization.