Even as China is poised to overtake Japan as the world’s second-largest economy, its foreign policy is driven less by its sense of its role as a key global player than by a set of ‘narrowly defined’ national interests, says Professor Kenneth Lieberthal, Director of the John L. Thornton China Center and senior fellow in Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development at The Brookings Institution.
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Certainly, China could “make a big difference” on major global issues such as climate change, nuclear proliferation and the global economic crisis if it chooses to, Lieberthal told INSEAD Knowledge on a recent visit to Singapore.
“I think (China) is still in the early stages of figuring out how to be a global player. It still isn’t comfortable yet with what the balance ought to be between following China’s very narrowly defined national interests, versus contributing to global common goods, global stability, global rule-making, global institutions that are vibrant,” says Lieberthal.
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