International Hegemony in China's Global Perspective: From "Contradictory to Harmonious World"

Khair Salem Diabat,Department of Political Science, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan

Abstract

This paper will analyze the People Republic of China's (PRC) position toward international hegemony in the context of the PRC's global perspective since its establishment in 1949 until the end of 2018. The study aims to expose China's attempts to oppose this hegemony throughout the Cold War by forming a "united front" against the two superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. Furthermore, it aims to clarify why China has abandoned this strategy and has called for a "harmonious world" since 2005. The study is based on the premise that "the more China benefits from the hegemony of the global economic system, the more it will call for a harmonious world and give up opposing international hegemony practiced by other powers.” The study is divided into four sections. The first examines China's position toward American hegemony in the 1950s. The second explains China's worldview of the "Intermediate Zone" to form a "unified front" against the hegemony of the superpowers through the 1960s. The third reveales China's attempt to establish this united front through the Chinese "Three Worlds" strategy which dominated China's Worldview from the 1970s until the end of the Cold War. The fourth section shows the shift in China's attitude toward international hegemony after China has abandoned the idea of ​​traditional provocation against the hegemony of international powers and began to call for a "harmonious world", in which China could participate. The researcher uses both the historical and analytical descriptive method to explain this study. The study concluds that China has failed to oppose international hegemony practiced by the two superpowers during the Cold War, and its improved position in the global economic system as an economic and political power after the end of the Cold War has made Beijing seek to expand its network of peaceful relations with all international and regional powers in a hope to create a "harmonious world" that serves its economic success as well as its global rise.

Keywords: China, International Hegemony, "Intermediate Zone" strategy, "Three Worlds" strategy, "Harmonious World".