China as a system preserving power in the WTO

Since the People’s Republic of China (PRC) embarked upon a program of reform beginning in 1978, China’s “rise” has generated considerable debate. Outside of the country, much of the debate has concentrated on whether China will be a “system-challenging” (that is, a “revisionist”) power, or one that is “status quo”-preserving, despite the well noted ambiguities in these terms; and the central issue of much scholarly research has been directed at trying to determine what the PRC’s “intentions” are such that a proclamation can be made one way or the other. Sitting behind this debate is a longer-standing scholarly and policy concern with the extent to which China represents a “threat” to the international system that dates back more than 200 years to the West’s first regularized dealings with China (Turner, 2009; Kennedy, 2010). Indeed, much of the debate hinges on whether China has, to paraphrase Yongjin Zhang (1991), re-entered international society, or whether it is possible, to borrow Alastair Johnston’s phrase, “to socialize a dictatorial, nationalistic, and dissatisfied China” within that society (Johnston, 2003: 5).