Reading Kindleberger in Beijing: Xi Jinping’s China as a provider of global public goods

Abstract

In 2017, scholar Joseph Nye postulated that a rising China that failed to deliver global public goods could result in a ‘Kindleberger Trap’, failing, like the then rising United States about a century ago, to supply global public goods at a time of need. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made expanding China’s role in global public goods provision a hallmark of his foreign policy. This study assesses Xi-led China’s commitment to supplying global public goods using guideposts from historical examples of countries that made the shift from consumers to suppliers of global public goods. It finds that China seeks to enlarge its role in providing global public goods. However, Beijing is supplying those global public goods that it sees as maximising its interests, while simultaneously reshaping existing or constructing new modalities for their delivery. This behaviour, associated with systemic challengers, weakens confidence in China’s role as a stabiliser in future global crises.