Chinese Views of US Hegemony

Abstract

In the past several years, Chinese analysts have acknowledged that the United States possesses a vast amount of power and influence, which has allowed it to act in arrogant and often aggressive ways, and has fueled its ambitions of achieving global hegemony. While many PRC authors attribute to the US a coherent grand strategy of world domination, others have followed and assessed the debates that pervade US foreign policy-making, analyzed the nature of American hegemony, and critiqued the theoretical discussions on the subject carried out in US political science journals. Chinese analysts see both strengths and weaknesses in American hegemony, for while the country currently has superior comprehensive national power, there are also vulnerabilities in its economic and military strength, as well as in its relations with its allies. The views of Chinese authors are not uniform on the subject of US hegemony, however, for some believe that the US already is a hegemon, while others view America as a superpower seeking hegemony, or argue that the nation simply displays hegemonic behavior. Consequently there are several different schools of thought on the characteristics of US hegemony, as well as its tactics, goals and manifestations.