China Quarterly of International Strategic Studies

U.S.–China competition has been widely viewed as the most important feature of world politics that will shape the emerging international order. Whereas Washington increasingly sees Beijing as the sole great power with the intent and capabilities to dismantle the U.S.-led liberal order, Beijing views Washington’s military buildup and new partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region as the latest U.S. attempt to contain and encircle China. This paper adopts a power transition perspective to compare the advantages and disadvantages of both powers, using six parameters to measure their relative national strength. In doing so, the authors try to update and modernize A.F.K. Organski’s theory in the 21st century, applying it to the most consequential relationship of our time.

Huge debt from multilateral institutions, countries, and private creditors, unsustainable loans with onerous default conditions, investments that serve to foster political authority, treaties, and trading relations with unequal partners have set the African continent on a course that threatens its human and economic development prospects. While the multilateral relations, treaties, loans, and investments represent major opportunities for African countries to boost growth, reduce poverty, build infrastructures, and broaden economically, they could also constrain developments, and undermine the capacity of poorer African countries to create the conditions for the realization of human rights. It has been established that debt repayment is often carried out at the expense of basic human rights. In addition, debt servicing and harmful conditions linked to loans and debt relief often limit investment in and undermine the provision of essential public services. The study examined the various factors related to human rights, particularly in the context of China’s loans and financial investment in African countries. It delves into specific human rights concerns relating to socioeconomic, cultural, civil, political, and environmental rights to provide a comprehensive understanding of the human rights issues arising from China’s engagement with African countries. Human rights have also been adopted as measuring tools to assess, measure, and prevent the impact of financial relations, debt burdens, and assistance.

Beijing’s recent peace initiatives in the Middle East have drawn growing scrutiny and generated heated debate over its role in the Global South. Learning from the West’s hitherto mixed record in the regional peace process, China attempts to improve the effectiveness of regional peace diplomacy by focusing on three important ingredients, namely, neutrality, leverage, and timing. While Beijing’s neutrality stems from the long-held principle of inviolability of sovereignty and territorial integrity, its leverage draws from extensive and robust economic ties with regional stakeholders. Moreover, Beijing offers its good offices at a time when both the Iranians and Saudis have become conflict-weary, believing that continued tensions go against their own interests. Recent breakthroughs in peace diplomacy may raise local actors’ expectations to such levels that Beijing may find difficult to meet because China still defines its role as one of a facilitator, not a security guarantor.

The confrontation between China and the United States in the international economic and trade field has been gradually evolving into a much wider one between China and the Western world at large. In the escalating technological confrontation between China and the United States, Beijing has chosen export controls on gallium and germanium as a means of retaliation against U.S. export controls on advanced chips to China. However, whether it is oil, gas, gallium, germanium, or rare earths, export controls on these natural resources can only have a visible effect in the short term and may not achieve the political objectives intended by the sanctioners. With continued advances in resource extraction technology, the ongoing exploration of alternative resources, and the increasingly important role played by the price adjustment mechanisms, the export control on natural resources may not produce a sanctionary effect of stranglehold in the long run. After the Group of Seven (G-7) Hiroshima Summit, the confrontation landscape between China and the West has been further established, and the geopolitics in the world has entered a new era in which global economic growth faces greater uncertainty. Only multilateralism and global cooperation can promote the long-term prosperity of the world economy.

Leading theorists of major schools of thought in international relations disagree over the root causes of the ongoing war in Ukraine. This paper examines the merits and bases of the theories or explanations provided by each major IR school. It explores the dominant arguments concerning the nature and trajectory of the ongoing war, the prospects for its resolution, and its strategic effects on the international system with a particular emphasis on China. We argue that scholars’ views on these topics are significantly influenced by their theoretical orientations within international relations. Furthermore, strategic thinkers and policymakers, identified as homines theoretici or feminae theoreticae, are themselves deeply influenced by their theoretical understandings of the world, which in turn shape their normative engagement with world affairs. However, the interplay between theoretical perspectives and practical realities hinges on the dynamics of power and objective material conditions on the ground.