China’s dual position in the capitalist world order: a dual complexity of hegemony and counter-hegemony

This chapter is based on the conceptualization of China’s rise as having different implications and impacts on different parts of the world. It provides a framework of understanding China’s re-emergence in the nexus of the international political economy and world system perspectives. China’s dual position as both hegemon and counter-hegemon is conceptualized as dialectic, dynamic, and complex. China is becoming a leading counter-hegemonic socio-political and socio-economic force to the “center” of the existing world order, while at the same time, it can be seen as a new emerging hegemon to the semi-peripheral and peripheral parts of the world order. In line with the understanding of Realism, China’s economic rise is premised on expanding and intensifying integration within the international system, China’s rise presages an inevitable conflict within the current international system and a challenge to the US hegemony.