ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the developing relationship between China and the Western core nations within the context of the capitalist world system. Since the demise of 'real-existing socialism' the evolution of East Asia has become a primary concern of social sciences and political strategists. The accumulation process that resulted from the economic relations established on the world scale after the incorporation of the Americas and Africa was essential to the evolution of European capitalism. Modern Western social sciences have had difficulties coming to terms with the comparative development of Europe in relation to these non-European entities. Scholars belonging to the dependency tradition have in recent times analysed the transformation taking place in the contemporary international political economy as a return to normalcy. The paradox of the inclusion of ever larger areas of the world into the sphere of international capitalist relations has not been fully grasped by socialist opinion.
