The fantasy of taming china’s rise

• John Lee
• Centre for Independent Studies

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07 May 2010This paper argues that the belief that China will be content to rise as a 'responsible stakeholder' in a US-led regional and global order is out of date. Instead, a new framework needs to explicitly recognise that China is both an economic partner and a 'strategic competitor' to America and its allies such as Australia.

In a recent article, prominent foreign affairs author James Mann argued that ‘The idea of a powerful United States bringing China into the existing system is fading’. Mann concluded:

The idea of integrating China into a US-led world order was a chimera from the start. So, instead of pursuing vague and larger purposes, we should simply pursue our own interests, as China does. We can stop pretending that those interests coincide. There is no need to sign grand statements about Sino-American cooperation when they don’t reflect the underlying reality between the two countries.

This paper argues that America’s capacity to ‘manage’ China and encouraging it to rise as a ‘responsible stakeholder’ within a US-led system is indeed failing. China is too big, too proud, and too independent-minded to be ‘tamed.’