China’s Power Status and Its Impact on Chinese World Order

Abstract

According to Goldman Sachs‘s projection, China‘s GDP, in terms of US dollars, will overtake that of the United States in 2030 to become the world number one. This raises the question whether Chinese world order is coming in the near future. Martin Jacques, whose answer to the above question is ―yes‖ in his book ―When China Rules the World‖ by focusing on economic power. However, Joseph Nye argued that military and economic forces (hard power) are not enough for a country to rule the world; the ability to shape the preferences of others (soft power) also plays a very important role in that matter. This paper finds that it is hard to jump to a conclusion that Chinese world order is coming, for it has not become revisionist state yet. The reasons for that are: China becomes the world‘s largest economy that is not a sure thing, the liberal world order will still be led by the U.S., AIIB and OBOR don‘t help China much in enhancing its power status and China has not set the common values with Chinese characteristics for the rest of world to follow.