Fall 2017 JPI

to construct its own global order. Therefore, it is hard to believe China has been, or will be, a real
challenger to the US hegemony as long as the American world order exists.
RESPONSE TO THE OPPOSITE OPINION: THE MEARSHEIMER’S VIEWPOINT
ON CHINA
Although I argue that China is not a challenger to the American world order, I have noticed
that there are many different and opposite opinions. Mearsheimer, as one of the leading realists, asserts
that China is a significant threat for the US. He argues that “if China continues its striking economic
growth over the next few decades, it is likely to act in accordance with the logic of offensive realism,
which is to say it will attempt to imitate the [US]. Specifically, it will try to dominate Asia the way the
[US] dominates the Western Hemisphere. It will do so primarily because such domination offers the
best way to survive under international anarchy.” 27 Mearsheimer agrees with my argument that China
has not been a real challenger yet because of the large economic and military gap between the two
countries. However, I disagree with Mearsheimer on the dynamics between China and America in the
future. According to Mearsheimer, when China has roughly the same size of economy and military
power as the US, it will become a challenger to the American world order because it will follow the
same road as the US to construct its hegemony.
My first response is that China will not follow the American way to dominate Asia. As I
mentioned before, there is almost no strategic vacuum in Asia because of the growing US military
presence and the Western alliance system. If China follows the same way to push the US out of Asia,
it will only worsen the security dilemma in the region or even raise military conflict with the US. The
security dilemma would destabilize Asia, damaging the Chinese economy. Economic development has
always been a major concern for China. A potential conflict between the superpowers would likely be
unaffordable for China. It is not wise for China to take the risk to lose what it has already achieved
only to pursue an impossible regional hegemony.
My second response is that people should take the American world order into account rather
than consider the US as only a regional hegemon. Mearsheimer argues that the US is only a regional
hegemon because it is hard to “conquer and subdue distant great powers.” 28 Therefore, China will be
a significant threat for the US if it can become an Asian hegemon. By this logic, the competition
between the US and China will be the struggle between two nominally equal regional hegemons. I
argue that this is not the case, with Mearsheimer overestimating China’s threat by undervaluing
American power. The US is a global hegemon which keeps control of the world order. If it were only
a regional power, no one could explain the existence of the domination of the American economy
model (market economy and free trade), the US worldwide alliance system, and its global strategy to
maintain the liberal world order. It is even confusing to understand the reasons for America to get
involved in the issue of the South China Sea if the US is only a regional power which merely worries
about its survival in an anarchy state. When we predict whether China will become a challenger to
American world order or not, we need to consider American global power seriously. After we
understand the global dominance of the Unites States, China seems to have no possibility or intention
27 Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, 368.
28 Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, 364.
JPI Fall 2017, pg. 49