8. Conclusion: China Cracks the Whip: The Geopolitical Economy of Chinese Externalisation

This chapter explicates how the structural dynamics of the state capitalist system of accumulation are shaping choices being made by China’s leaders across foreign, trade, and industrial policy spheres, while also considering how the dynamics of the international system are reciprocally restructuring China’s growth model. First, I examine two dangerous flash points for China’s newly assertive foreign policy: the South and East China Seas, where China is contending with the U.S. to assert regional security dominance. Next, I explore the intensifying geoeconomic antagonism between China and the U.S. Third, I turn to the most dramatic example of China’s externalisation dynamics: the Belt and Road Initiative, a major attempt to lay the basis for China’s regional hegemony through a sweeping round of infrastructural investments. Finally, I consider whether the accumulating economic problems in China might be evaded through the growth of the most dynamic sector of its economy today: the digital economy. I conclude with a summary of the core contributions of this book, and suggest that the emergent social, political and economic crises to which the Covid-19 pandemic has given rise are likely to deepen the trends towards autocentrism, the national territorialisation of economic growth, and inter-imperialist rivalry described here.