ABSTRACT
China’s economic influence is now undisputed. Even sceptics like Yasheng Huang (2008, xiii) admit that, in terms of wealth creation and liberalization, China continues to be a gross domestic product (GDP) growth machine, whatever the specific contours of its development, and the inequalities and faults that its model still contains and creates. But how this sort of influence is translated into raw political and military impact beyond the borders of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is still less clear. To some, China remains a reluctant operator internationally, with no set game plan, and a clear reluctance to get involved in international issues. To others, it is hiding an ominous ambitious purpose, slightly cloaked by the language of ‘peaceful rise’ used in recent years by the political élite in Beijing to reassure outsiders. Either way, if we resolve the issue of how, and why, China deploys influence abroad, we can then be clearer about the sort of entity that the PRC will become in the years ahead, as it continues to be a major power in the 21st century.
