Understanding China’s Rise: The Collective Action Dimension

Abstract

With China having a fortune in foreign exchange reserves and one of the mightiest economies in the world, people are wondering what kind of country China will be in the international arena. Will it be a leader or a follower, a norm-maker or a normtaker, a team player or a rogue elephant, a status quo power or a revisionist? Or will it fall somewhere between these extremes, carving out a position that is uniquely Chinese? Answers to these questions come in this impressive book by three scholars with Ph.D.s from Australian universities, one of a growing number of analyses to deal with the topic of China and global governance, one of the aspects of China’s rise. Whereas some studies deal with a single institution such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the Group of 20 and others deal with a single issue area (global economic governance, global health governance and so on), this study focuses on a wide range of issues, such as peace and security and public health, and in a way that does not sacrifice depth for breadth. The book is also impressive because it provides a unifying analytical framework that enables the authors to draw conclusions about China’s performance in different issue areas. Central to this framework is the notion of global public goods, which the authors say ‘‘are the