Beyond revisionism and the status quo: China's strategy of selective reformism in the liberal international order
Keywords:
External Behavior, China's Rise, Liberal International Order, Selective Reformism, Global Governance, International OrderAbstract
China's growing influence has fueled the discussion on the future of the Liberal International Order (LIO) while at the same time raising doubts about China's interaction with the current order. This article concentrates on the central puzzle: How to measure China's cooperation with and reform of the Liberal International Order while at the same time measuring its resistance? It is conceptual and qualitative in nature and applies the realist and liberal institutionalist perspectives to analyse China's behavior, followed by a discussion on the China's engagement in each of the dimensions of the LIO. The analysis shows that both of these viewpoints alone offer a plausible account of China's behavior abroad. Instead, China's actions indicate a policy of selective reformism that involves staying attuned to the institutions that advance its national interests, while attempting to reform the institutions in a gradual way that is not seen as compromising sovereignty and regime security. It is suggested that selective reformism is a more complete prism for analyzing China's current international actions and can aid in discussions of the development of the Liberal International Order in a multipolar world order.
Downloads
References
Atlı, A., & Akar, Z. (2020). China's relationship with the liberal international order: The case of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Marmara University Journal of Political Science, 8(Special Issue), e1–e21. https://doi.org/10.14782/marmarasbd.784428
Brown, K. (2023). China incorporated: The politics of a world where China is number one. Bloomsbury Academic.
Doshi, R. (2021). The long game: China's grand strategy to displace American order. Oxford University Press.
Foot, R., & Walter, A. (2011). China, the United States, and global order. Cambridge University Press.
Holm, M. (2025, January 15). A postliberal global order? Challenge(r)s to the Liberal West (Report No. 1/2025). Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.
Ikenberry, G. J. (2008). The rise of China and the future of the West: Can the liberal system survive? Foreign Affairs, 87(1), 23–37.
McGregor, R. (2024). The challenge of China for the liberal international order. In Y. Hosoya & H. Kundnani (Eds.), The transformation of the liberal international order (pp. 91–101). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4729-4_9
Mearsheimer, J. J. (2018). The great delusion: Liberal dreams and international realities. Yale University Press.
Papa, M., & Han, Z. (2025). The evolution of soft balancing in informal institutions: The case of BRICS. International Affairs, 101(1), 73–95. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae278
Weiss, J. C., & Wallace, J. L. (2021). Domestic politics, China's rise, and the future of the liberal international order. International Organization, 75(2), 635–664. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002081832000048X
de Graaff, N., ten Brink, T., & Parmar, I. (2020). China's rise in a liberal world order in transition: Introduction to the special issue. Review of International Political Economy, 27(2), 191-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2019.1709880
Keohane, R. O. (1984). After hegemony: Cooperation and discord in the world political economy. Princeton University Press.
Downloads
Published
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammad Shahzaib, Dr. Abdul Basit Khan, Dr. Mian Muhammad Azhar (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
