Global Governance and China ─ The Dragon's Learning Curve

This comprehensive new work offers a systematic analysis of growing Chinese engagement in global governance institutions during the past three decades. During this period, Chinese have gone from outsiders to observers to active participants in just about every realm of governance. However, there is substantial variation in the ways Chinese participate and how effective they are in promoting their own interests This variation, in turn, has direct consequences for multilateral cooperation and addressing the globe’s thorniest problems.

This book is based on studies of Chinese involvement in a wide cross section of regimes, including trade, finance, intellectual property rights, climate change, public heath, labour, and technical standards. Through detailed analysis of different areas of global governance, the contributors to this volume argue that China has become most adept at regimes that serve the needs of industrial producers, and has moved less up the learning curve in those regimes focused on other actors, such as labour, or addressing other problems, such as climate change. Emphasising that Chinese participation has important implications for addressing some of the most pressing global problems, this work examines why China often avoids taking the lead when it comes to reform and considers the prospects for Chinese becoming advocates for more progressive reform of the international system.

This work will be essential reading for students and scholars of international relations, China studies and global governance.

Scott Kennedy is Associate Professor in the Departments of Political Science and East Asian Languages & Cultures and Director of the Research Center for Chinese Politics & Business (RCCPB) at Indiana University. His research interests include government-business relations, policymaking, and global governance. He is editor of Beyond the Middle Kingdom: Comparative Perspectives on China’s Capitalist Transformation (Stanford University Press, 2011); author of The Business of Lobbying in China (Harvard University Press, 2005); and editor of China Cross Talk: The American Debate over China Policy since Normalization: A Reader (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).