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Abstract
The financial and economic crisis of 2008 has highlighted the changing landscape of international relations and the enormous pressure on the People's Republic of China to redefine its international position. Based on two case studies, China's Africa policy and its response to the global financial and economic crisis, we argue that China's foreign policies are currently characterized by an adaptation of its historical role conception as a "leading developing country" to that of a "responsible caretaker" in international, especially economic affairs. In its own perceptions - developed in constant exchange with external perceptions of China - as well as in its actions, the PRC finds itself drawn faster and further into a complex web of global governance than anticipated by its policy elites. Acknowledging the benefits of a stronger involvement, the PRC steps up its engagement with regional, multilateral and global orders and is actively pursuing their recalibration. Contradictions within the Chinese leadership, conflicting themes in public discourse and incoherent actions highlight the difficulties even for a technocratic one-party elite with a limited - albeit real and important - need to assure domestic support and legitimacy to define the global role of an "emerging great power".
Keywords: China, foreign policy, China and Africa, China and G20, Global Financial Crisis
JEL classification: F51, F55, F59, G01
1. Introduction1
The financial and economic crisis that erupted in the United States in 2008 has highlighted the changing landscape of international relations. The People's Republic of China (PRC) found itself under enormous pressure to redefine its role in and contribution to global problem-solving. Earlier discussions on whether to contain or to engage the emerging superpower in the west (Mills, 1996; Shambaugh, 1996) gave way to analyses of how China's rise would determine the future international political system. More than three decades after the PRC embarked on its policies of economic growth, social change and the effective modernization of its one-party state, China has moved to the centre stage of the new global order (Breslin, 2007; Helleiner and Pagliari, 2010).
On a superficial glance, these changes in external role expectations regarding the Chinese leadership resembles the realization of their long cherished ambition to lead erstwhile leading global civilization back to its former glory. However, on closer inspection, China's...