Emerging China and Critical Geopolitics: Between World Politics and Chinese Particularity

A prominent political and human geographer assesses the rise of contemporary China through the lens of critical geopolitics. In doing so he challenges both ( a) conventional world political views of China as merely the most recent world power to emerge through a natural process of linear succession ("the linear narrative") and (b) conceptions of the country as a completely unique phenomenon shaped by a distinct historical experience and cultural particularity ("Sino-centrism"). The paper develops the argument that China's rise rather is shaped by a contradictory amalgam of Western-style nationalism and a traditional totalistic conception of world order that is reactive to and dependent on current world politics. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F020, F500, O180, P200. 65 references.