Is China a 'rule maker' or a 'rule taker' in the international system - Essay Example

Such a multi-stakeholder system is classified by an increasingly liberal multilateral order and increasingly flexible attitude toward the sovereignty of the state. The perception that China has served as a rule-taker for a long time but is now undergoing a radical transformation to become a rule-maker that is making new game rules in favor of its national interests, is commonly help by both realists and neoliberals. “A more powerful China, the thinking goes, is likely to promote a statist and more hierarchical brand of international governance that is inconsistent with the open, multilateral governance architecture that has emerged and developed since the end of World War II under American and European guidance” (Kennedy and Cheng, 2012, p. 9). Transformation in China’s foreign policy since the mid-20th century In the Mao Era between 1949 and 1978, there was a fundamental opposition of China to the global architecture that was derided as the capitalist West’s puppet.

However, since the early 1980s, integration of China into the different regimes of the international system improved rapidly. . enge the traditional regimes, though as soon as China gets in a more powerful position, it would inevitably reshape the international institutions and norms to suit its own preferences. Therefore, the engagement and compliance presently shown by China toward the international order cannot be thought of as long-lasting. “Since the 1990s China sought to improve relations with as many of its neighbors as possible, including settling leftover border disputes with the former Soviet Union” (Lanteigne, 2013, p. 3). The longevity of China’s global engagement There is a lot of subjectivity about goals and course in the recent foreign policy of China (Sutter, 2012, p. 3). The global engagement of China is not as temporal as it is perceived to be by some, and there are numerous reasons for that; firstly, in spite of the fact that the current international system was not invented by China, it is consistent with the interests of China in different ways.

China has increased its military and economic power substantially within the current order’s context. Secondly, people and institutions that have more political and economic strength in China have taken advantage of the engagement of China in the present international system. China would continue favoring the status quo till the time these institutions are in power in China and the ruling elite favors them. Thirdly, over the passage of time, China has become so deeply grounded in the international order that outright opposition or disengagement is very difficult to achieve.

A lot of Chinese companies have started to integrate into the networks of production on a global scale, and depend upon growing such linkages in order to survive and expand. The government of China has made a formal pledge to comply with numerous treaties