ABSTRACT
This chapter explains Marxist-based concepts of structural power and structural violence as a theoretical map to examine how China's use of economic statecraft with the weak states on its periphery results in negative outcomes and to consider the security implications for both the weak states and for China. While this chapter focuses specifically on structural power within international relations and international political economy and structural violence as part of critical security studies, these concepts gain in explanatory value when placed within the larger body of Marxist scholarship. Structural power offers an alternative Marxist-based theoretical approach to China's economic relations with weak states at the system and domestic levels that can account for its influence without assigning it intentionality. Historical materialism, was a research programme for viewing history in terms of socio economic forces, exploitation, oppression, and class struggle. It also provides a theoretical starting point for determining how economic relations shape and perpetuate social development and knowledge formation.
