ABSTRACT
China is rising again. This time, the change is taking place in response to Beijing's policy responses to an external eco-nomic crisis. Beijing has handled domestic economic crises earlier but this time around, the structural impact on the country's economy and its relationship with the outside world will be very different and considerably more profound. How China will change and how that change will influence the world — not just the global economy but also the international political order — are the subjects that have begun to receive some attention in academic and policy circles. This chapter attempts to bring out some of the issues that should inform the debate. It also discusses the impact China is likely to have on Pakistan, one of its neighbours in South Asia. China and Pakistan have enjoyed what is often referred to as an ‘all-weather relationship’ to distinguish it from the off and on relationship it has had with the United States. 1 As China's status in the community of nations improves and as it develops the institutional means to conduct its business with the United States, would it continue to pay the kind of attention it has given in the past to Pakistan? We will provide some tentative answers to this question.
