ABSTRACT

China is now a global power. It has not always been one. Arguably, until the early 2000s, it was first of all a fast-growing regional power, and before the beginning of the reforms in 1979 a huge but isolated country, incapable of imposing its views upon most of its neighbours. At the same time, the People's Republic of China (PRC) is still an authoritarian polity, dominated by a communist party which, while keeping some of its original precepts, has turned into an essentially nationalist, ‘statist’ and entrepreneurial ruling organization glued together by an ideological cocktail which is strongly reminiscent of the Kuomintang (KMT) of the 1930s.