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Both globalization and China have caught much attention in international political economy, and China is often portrayed as a main beneficiary of globalization. However, this simplified representation misses out much critical social content. This paper argues that globalization can be understood as a tripartite phenomenon: flexible accumulation, internationalization of the state, and the rise of economic neoliberalism. It partly reflects the efforts of the capital in the industrial core to overcome a new crisis of overaccumulation since the early 1970s. From the perspective of China, globalization has quite different dynamics and implications, which reflects the distinct configuration and evolution of Chinese political economy. The Chinese miracle is indeed a process to reconstitute a large cheap labor force and to institutionalize a new economic order. In Chinese context, flexible accumulation is articulated as a process of reconstituting a large cheap labor force, of participating into the global flexible production network, and of exploiting both domestic and international markets. The internationalization of the state is not so much geared to the need of internationalized capital, but to the reconstitution and institutionalization of the new social relations and economic order within China. Economic neoliberalism provides a critical ideological justification of Chinese reform. All these aspects bear a clear mark of Chinese authoritarian state. The dawn of the third millennium has witnessed a profound crisis in China. As of the time being the future evolutionary path of Chinese political economy is far from clear. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1990s China underwent major changes in its foreign policy as it integrated into the world economy, focused on its regional environment and entered into new multilateral commitments. This article analyses China's foreign policy agenda by reference to internal dynamics, resorting to a critical political economy analysis. The arguments suggest that the costs and benefits of the three most important instruments used to retain power - cooptation, legitimation and repression - have changed in the course of the economic reforms. China's foreign policy reflects an internal adjustment to these changing fundamentals of retaining power. Thus, firstly, China's foreign policy reflects the domestic policy dilemma between the need to buy the support of crucial groups within society and the need for scarce resources to be distributed among larger sections of society. Secondly, China's multilateral approach especially towards its Central Asian neighbours - primarily with regard to security issues - is designed to mitigate the rising domestic cost of repression by sharing information with external partners. And thirdly, the quest to legitimate the political system of the People's Republic is a prominent factor in the shaping of the country's current foreign policy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American hegemony has passed its peak. The twenty-first century will see a more multi-polar international system. Yet Western European countries may not be the United States' main foils in decades to come. Four new poles of the international system are now widely known in the business and financial press as the "BRICs economies" (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Does the concept of "the BRICs" have meaning within a rigorous political science framing? From the perspective of an economic liberal employing neoclassical assumptions to understand the world economy, the category's justification is surprisingly weak. In contrast, a political or economic realist's framing instructs us to focus on states that are increasing their relative material capabilities—as each of the four is. Finally, within a liberal institutionalist's mental model, the BRICs countries are a compelling set, yet one with a deep cleavage between two sub-groups: large emerging powers likely to remain authoritarian or revert to that state, and those that are securely democratic. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]