Chinese view of "international liberal order"
- A summary of "Does liberal international order have a future?"
Global Times Op-Ed 2018/4/16
The liberal international order became a hot topic and attracted gurus including Joseph S. Nye, John Mearshermer, John Ikenberry, Jack L. Snyder. Discussion often veered toward questions of whether the liberal international order had ended and what the future world order will be based upon.
According to Ikenberry who first put forward the notion about 20 years ago and then framed the new paradigm in this field, the liberal international order is what the US and its partners built after World War II, organized around economic openness, multilateral institutions, security cooperation and democratic solidarity. Surely he forgot to include another not secondary component: military expansion based on US Unified Combat Command and interference in the affairs of sovereign countries.
Naturally, there are many criticisms of Ikenberry's optimism. Realists and critical theorists like John Mearshermer point to the failure of liberal regimes, designed to manage order and promote justice. A much broader criticism included US President Donald Trump's sledgehammer to the world order. Participants argued that by bringing racial and economic anxieties to the fore, President Trump will likely do more harm than good. "America First will make America second rate," as one participant put it. Even Ikenberry questions the survival of the liberal order during the Trump presidency. From a Democratic Party standpoint, this focus on Trump seems to be a scapegoat. Would another Clinton presidency lessen the relative decline of US international legitimacy?
During the conferences, there were many panels and roundtables focused on China's new initiatives in recent years such as the Belt and Road initiative and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which symbolize China's power to rewrite the rules. An even more critical question emerged: Will there be a war in the process of a power shift, replicating many tragedies from human history? Many people recalled Ikenberry's masterpiece, After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars, to prove that China may wage war to transform the current liberal order. This was the main incentive for Ikenberry to revise this book, address the question and publish a second edition later this year after 17 years.
Contrary to Trump's fraying of the international order, China has shown its willingness and determination to defend the international order. At the annual Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan, President Xi Jinping pledged a "new phase of opening-up" which offers an alternative vision of global development to Trump's more nationalist model. Xi also said: "Openness versus isolation and progress versus retrogression, humanity has a major choice to make." It is obvious that China's development trend squares with the core value of the liberal international order. "Regardless of the extent of development, China will not subvert the current international system, nor will it seek to establish spheres of influence," Xi said.
