State Transformation and the Rise of China as a World Power: A Discourse on the Realist Paradigm

Abstract

The State generally has been conceived to be a politically organised body of people occupying a definite territory which ideally, has a legitimate government in power to steer its affairs. Of a truth, no State, be it diminutive or gigantic, desire to be economically backward let alone seen as a less powerful country within the international community. Thus, visionary political leaders over the years have seen to the implementation of sound economic policies that have transformed their country from an underdeveloped to a developed economy as was the case for the four Asian Tigers from the 60s. Politically, the People's Republic of China, taking into account the tangible and intangible indices of power, can no longer be regarded as a sleeping giant but a rising power on the world stage. This paper therefore has two objectives. Firstly, to point out the nexus between state transformation and China as an emerging powerhouse. Secondly, to critically assess China as a rising power within the framework of the realist paradigm. Going by my findings, the pursuit of national interest and the augmentation of State power were identified as the driving force behind China's recent behaviour on the international plane, which theoretically, is the thrust of the realist paradigm. The historical and analytical approaches were adopted in the course of this study with secondary sources of qualitative data as the research methodology.