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J OF CHIN POLIT SCI (2012) 17:269290
DOI 10.1007/s11366-012-9202-6
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Joel Wuthnow & Xin Li & Lingling Qi
Published online: 20 July 2012# Journal of Chinese Political Science/Association of Chinese Political Studies 2012
Abstract This article addresses Chinas multilateral diplomacy by identifying four distinct strategies: watching, engaging, circumventing, and shaping. The typology builds on two literatures: power transition theory, and the more recent assertiveness discourse in the West. Drawing from a range of cases in both the economic and security domains, the article argues that Chinas multilateralism is diverse, and that it cannot be un-problematically characterized as either status-quo or revisionist in nature. However, the general trend appears to be towards engagement, but with an assertive tact as Chinas interests become further entangled in the business of international institutions.
Keywords China . Institutions . United Nations . Multilateralism . Foreign Policy
Introduction
In the past several years, China has become a more noticeable actor across an array of multilateral institutions and regimes, in fields ranging from regional security to economic governance. Chinas participation itself, as well as its acceptance of the norms embodied in those institutions, has been taken as a measure of whether or not the PRC is developing into a status quo or revisionist power [1]. A state that
J. Wuthnow (*)
CNA China Studies, Alexandria, VA, USA e-mail: [email protected]
X. Li
Asia Research Centre, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark e-mail: [email protected]
L. Qi
School of Government, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China e-mail: [email protected]
Diverse Multilateralism: Four Strategies in Chinas Multilateral Diplomacy
270 J. Wuthnow et al.
participates and does not seek fundamental changes in the structure of the existing order is said to be following a status-quo trajectory, while one that does not engage, or aspires to change the rules, is oriented towards revisionism.
This article challenges the premise that Chinas relationship to international institutionsincluding formal organizations and regimes involving more than two statescan be used as such a metric.1 Rather, we argue that the nature of Chinas participation varies across two dimensions: revisionism, on one hand, and assertiveness, on the other. This leads to a refined typology of Chinas strategic options in which four choices are present. We label these as watching, engaging, circumventing, and shaping. The point is that status...