89
American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS)
ISSN (Print) 2313-4410, ISSN (Online) 2313-4402
© Global Society of Scientific Research and Researchers
http://asrjetsjournal.org/
Implications of China’s Rise: A Liberalist Perspective
Raphael Ziro Mwatela
a*
, Silva Doci
b
a,b
Central China Normal University,CICE, 152 Luoyu Avenue,Wuhan, Hubei 430079, China
a
Email: mwatelaraph@yahoo.com
b
Email: 1457137275@qq.com
Abstract
The biggest debate in the last decade has been how a rising China will affect the world order. Some have said
China will seek to overhaul the system as it is (revisionist) while others have argued that China has thrived
under the current system therefore it would be foolhardy to overhaul a system that has led to her rise.
Revisionist or status quo, what has come to the fore and especially with the rise of Donald Trump, China’s rise
has a lot of implications. This paper seeks to employ liberalist thoughts to add into the debate. We argue that,
China will seek to gain more say in global issues within the realm of institutions and not direct hard power.
Completion will be there, but with rules governed by institutions, hence China will seek to use and shape these
rules to better her position.
Keywords: Sino-US relations; US-China relations; Revisionism; Status-Quo; Global power politics.
1. Introduction
Francis Fukuyama proclaimed it the ‘end of history’, a triumph of liberal ideas over all other forms. The United
States of America (US) victory over the former Soviet Union in the early 1990’s was equated to triumph of
western ideas, democracy and free market capitalism [14]. The collapse of the bipolar world was drastic such
that scholars of international relations couldn’t predict. It ushered an ‘uncharted’ era of a unipolar world, with
other major powers as supporting cast. The US became the sole provider of public goods on the one hand, while
reaping the spoils on the other. Fast forward to 2015, and the most searched news item in the internet covering
over 50,000 news sources according to this author [1], as tracked by the Global Language Monitor, was the ‘rise
of China’.
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* Corresponding author.