ABSTRACT
The Conclusion chapter finds that China's economic statecraft has evolved through three distinct approaches: (1) The approach of Emperor Zhu Di, who initiated Admiral Zheng He's voyages across the Indo-Pacific, symbolizing a period of exploration and maritime prowess. (2) Mao Zedong's approach, rooted in Marxist ideology and intertwined with China's classical history, representing a blend of ideological fervor and historical context. (3) Deng Xiaoping's approach, characterized by a developmentalist philosophy, focusing on economic growth and modernization as the primary drivers of statecraft. This chapter concludes that the remarkable economic ascent of China since 1978 can be attributed to a unique blend of Marxist ideology and developmentalist economics, a compromise forged within the Communist Party of China. This compromise maintained Marxism as the dominant ideological framework while simultaneously embracing economic liberalism as the driving force behind China's statecraft. However, the “Marxist-Developmentalist Compromise”, a concept prevailing since Deng Xiaoping's era, is now being challenged. There is a growing risk of overextension in China's new economic statecraft, particularly in the context of China's economic slowdown and the Covid. Ultimately, the tension inherent in the conversion between wealth and power (wealth-power dialectic) remains one of the most significant challenges to China's rise.
