Is China building a rival institutional order to challenge and potentially replace the existing one? In the decades following the Cold War, the United States played a leading role in creating the institutions of what became known as the liberal international order (LIO). Since then, China’s global profile has risen while the United States has reduced its commitment to global leadership. With growing evidence of a hegemonic transition, observers are increasingly debating whether Beijing is working to overturn the existing order by fostering rival institutional structures. To investigate this possibility, we identify observable implications of Chinese rival institution building and assess them using an original systematic dataset on Chinese international institution building since 1990. We find increasing signs of Chinese leadership in institutional creation and mixed evidence that China is building a rival international order. The results are more consistent with Chinese institutional layering alongside established institutions: a strategy of building without breaking the established international order.

Professor Matthew D. Stephen holds a Chair of Political Science (International Political Economy) at the Helmut Schmidt University / University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, and is a member of the German Research Foundation’s Heisenberg Programme. His work has been published in journals such as the European Journal of International Relations, Chinese Journal of International Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and International Studies Review. Together with Michael Zürn, he edited Contested World Orders (2019, Oxford University Press). His current Heisenberg research project, ‘China’s Bid for Hegemony? China-led Multilateral Institutions and Social Purpose in Global Governance’, explores China’s role in global governance through its multilateral initiatives.