A Converging China?

Perspectives: China, Africa, and the African Diaspora, 2009

There are few issues more essential to long-term global stability than the integration of the People’s Republic of China into the world economic and political system. From Cold War pariah to international powerhouse, the country’s transition over the past 30 years has driven two parallel reactions among the world’s countries – admiration from the developing world and nervousness among developed countries. The developing world admires China for its economic success, a model of controlled yet entrepreneurial capitalism that provides for political stability. Coupled with the country’s closed-off domestic system, however, the behavior and intentions of the Communist Party continue to be viewed with suspicion by the world’s largest powers. In other words, we see unique and divergent evaluations of the same facts of China’s rise in the world. Read More »