Diverging China Strategies in the West: Securitization and the Overlooked Role of Business Interests

Abstract

Amidst the current great-power competition and geopolitical tensions, why have western states formulated different strategies towards Beijing? Drawing upon literature on domestic politics and securitization, this article posits that the different China strategies are jointly shaped by, ceteris paribus, (1) whether interdependence with Beijing is anticipated to bring cost or benefit to the interest groups central to the decision-making process and (2) whether securitization of China is high or low in the country. The combination thereof leads to four main types of China strategies: pragmatic detachment, confrontation, business as usual, and distancing. These four strategies are further empirically assessed in a focused, structured comparative case study on Germany, the US, New Zealand, and Romania. Findings from this research support the societal approach of studying international relations in that foreign strategies are more than an automatic response to structural conditions, e.g., interdependence, and are constantly constructed and contested by societal actors within the confines of state-led securitization.