Six paths of Global China: A genealogy of a contested geographical imaginary

Abstract

‘Global China’ has emerged as a shorthand for China's relationship to the global, but its axiomatic uses disguise considerable complexity. This article troubles self-evident uses and tidy categorizations of Global China by approaching it as an emergent, pluralistic geographical imaginary warranting critical analysis. Employing a genealogical approach that privileges indeterminacy and inconsistency over linearity and singularity, we draw on wide-ranging sources to reveal the contested, contextual, and contradictory uses of Global China in the contemporary moment. Our analysis identifies six ‘paths’ of Global China: Other, Integration, Bridge, Status, Threat, and Alternative . Each path facilitates distinct yet interlinked claims about the relationship between China and the global, creating a web of interrelations that enables ‘Global China’ to encompass a range of world-making and meaning-making projects – from south-south solidarity and people-to-people connections to superpower rivalry and geoeconomic competition. The fluidity and open-endedness of Global China make it a site of contestation where competing visions clash and coalesce – but also a site of possibility. We conclude by discussing how scholars can use and build on the identified paths to engage Global China s in practice – and perhaps to envision and enact additional paths of Global China as well.