IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v57y2025i1p128-132.html

China, geoeconomics and the ‘new’ state capitalism

Author

Listed:
  • Ruben Gonzalez-Vicente

    (Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK)

  • Han Cheng

    (Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore)

Abstract

In contributing to a critical examination of geoeconomics, this article challenges the prevalent phenomenon of ‘geoeconomic othering’ ingrained within certain mainstream International Relations (IR) analyses. Focusing on the case of state capitalism in China, we argue that in typical orientalist fashion, some predominantly Anglo-American analyses tend to disproportionally emphasise China’s distinctiveness at the expense of glaring similarities with Western polities, and use this construct to normalise the neoliberal project and the geopolitical behaviours of the Global North. The task of a critical geoeconomics is to unpack these geographical imaginaries, to transcend essentialising depictions of the state and to explore the dialectic entanglements between state and corporate power.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruben Gonzalez-Vicente & Han Cheng, 2025. "China, geoeconomics and the ‘new’ state capitalism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 57(1), pages 128-132, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:57:y:2025:i:1:p:128-132
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X241269361
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X241269361
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0308518X241269361?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mitchell, Timothy, 1991. "The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and their Critics," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(1), pages 77-96, March.
    2. Gonzalez-Vicente, Ruben, 2019. "Make development great again? Accumulation regimes, spaces of sovereign exception and the elite development paradigm of China's Belt and Road Initiative," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(4), pages 487-513, December.
    3. Mikael Mattlin & Mikael Wigell, 2016. "Geoeconomics in the context of restive regional powers," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 125-134, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anupama Roy, 2022. "Institutional ‘Presence’ and the Indian State: The Long Narrative," Studies in Indian Politics, , vol. 10(2), pages 185-200, December.
    2. Coenen, Johanna & Newig, Jens & Meyfroidt, Patrick, 2022. "Environmental governance of a Belt and Road project in Montenegro – National agency and external influences," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    3. Hanna Hilbrandt, 2019. "Everyday urbanism and the everyday state: Negotiating habitat in allotment gardens in Berlin," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(2), pages 352-367, February.
    4. Pooja Thomas, 2024. "Redesigning the relationship between heritage and city: Insights from the Gandhi Heritage Portal, Ahmedabad," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(6), pages 1111-1126, May.
    5. Claudia Gastrow, 2020. "Urban States: The Presidency and Planning in Luanda, Angola," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 366-383, March.
    6. Mason, Michael, 2022. "Infrastructure under pressure: water management and state-making in Southern Iraq," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114909, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Jyotirmaya Tripathy & Jogasankar Mahaprashasta, 2022. "Between People and the State: The Ambivalence of Prime Minister’s Rural Development Fellowship in India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 17(2), pages 178-194, August.
    8. Ayesha Siddiqi, 2023. "The Sisyphean cycle of inequitable state production: State, space, and a drainage project in Pakistan," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 41(5), pages 866-883, August.
    9. Camelia Florela Voinea & Martin Neumann & Klaus G. Troitzsch, 2023. "The State and the Citizen: Overview of a complex relationship from a paradigmatic perspective," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 1-17, April.
    10. Thaler, Gregory M. & Viana, Cecilia & Toni, Fabiano, 2019. "From frontier governance to governance frontier: The political geography of Brazil’s Amazon transition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 59-72.
    11. Anna-Lena Maier, 2021. "Political corporate social responsibility in authoritarian contexts," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(4), pages 476-495, December.
    12. Salvatore Monaco, 2025. "The Other Side of Sustainability: Contradictions and Risks in Contemporary Green Innovations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-16, May.
    13. Yi Jin & Yimin Zhao, 2022. "THE INFORMAL CONSTITUTION OF STATE CENTRALITY: Governing Street Businesses in (Post‐)Pandemic Chengdu, China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 631-650, July.
    14. Tréguer, Félix, 2017. "Gaps and bumps in the political history of the internet," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 6(4), pages 1-21.
    15. Julia Gurol & Fabricio Rodríguez, 2022. "“Contingent power extension” and regional (dis)integration: China’s Belt and Road Initiative and its consequences for the EU," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 441-456, December.
    16. Jason Dittmer, 2021. "The state of this: Introduction to the special issue," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(7), pages 1313-1318, November.
    17. Derya Göçer & Ceren Ergenç, 2024. "Political informality, state transition and Belt and Road Initiative: the case of Turkey’s logistics sector," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 43-61, March.
    18. Soyeun Kim & Muyun Wang & Jin Sato, 2023. "Development Knowledge in the Making: The Case of Japan, South Korea and China," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 23(3), pages 275-293, July.
    19. Fabian Muniesa & Dominique Linhardt, 2009. "At stake with implementation: trials of explicitness in the description of the state," CSI Working Papers Series 015, Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (CSI), Mines ParisTech.
    20. Amy J. Cohen & Jason Jackson, 2022. "Governing through markets: Multinational firms in the bazaar economy," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 409-426, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:57:y:2025:i:1:p:128-132. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.