ABSTRACT
This chapter intends an interpretative theoretical journey into the Chinese concepts and definitions of the international with the intention to explore whether they indeed are so heterotopic as to be unworthy of translation for International Relations (IR) theory building. It draws on these literatures to tease out the content and practices of this term, as well as its implications for IR theory and practice. The chapter points to some of the ways in which the concept of guanxi informs nascent modes of relational theorizing in IR. It provides an overview of the concept of guanxi and the types of relationality afforded by its practices. Demonstrating its significance to Chinese intellectual traditions, the analysis uncovers its implications for IR thought and action. It evokes the registers of worlding mutuality by elaborating the ways in which guanxi can help transcend the Eurocentric instrumentalism of disciplinary inquiry.
