Preview

Governance and Politics

Advanced search

Rethinking the Concept of the “Global South” in China’s Foreign Policy (2013-2025)

https://doi.org/10.24833/2782-7062-2026-5-2-41-50

Abstract

This article analyzes the transformation of the concept of the “Global South” in the foreign policy discourse of the People’s Republic of China from 2013 to 2025. The aim of the study is to identify the mechanisms of formation, institutionalization, and functional evolution of this concept in Chinese diplomatic terminology. Based on a constructivist approach and a discursive analysis of official documents of the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs, government statements, and Xinhua News Agency materials, two stages are traced: semantic accumulation (2013–2022) and conceptualization followed by institutionalization (since 2023). It is concluded that the “Global South” has transformed from a descriptive development category into a strategic political construct reflecting China’s identity and its role in reforming global governance.

About the Author

Shen Daiyu
Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation

Shen Daiyu, Postgraduate Student

117997, Moscow, Nakhimovsky Prospekt, 32



References

1. Acharya, A. (2014). The End of American World Order. Cambridge: Polity Press.

2. Ikenberry, G. J. (2011). Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

3. Onuf, N. G. (1989). World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.

4. Prakash, B. S. (2015). Book review. Stuenkel, Oliver. The BRICS and the Future of Global Order. Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, 10(2), 187–190.

5. Stuenkel, Oliver. (2016). Post-Western World: How Emerging Powers Are Remaking Global Order. Polity Press.

6. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (2023). Trade and Development Report 2023: Growth, Debt and Climate. New York; Geneva: United Nations.

7. Wendt, A. (1999). Social Theory of International Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

8. Yan, Xuetong. (2014) From Keeping a Low Profile to Striving for Achievement. The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 7(2), 153–184. DOI: 10.1093/cjip/pou027

9. Zhao, Suisheng. (2018). A Revisionist Stakeholder: China and the Post-World War II World Order. Journal of Contemporary China, 27(113), 643–658. DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2018.1458029

10. 王金强,黄梅波.西方“全球南方”话语构建与中国的理论超越.东北亚论坛. 2025. 3. DOI: 10.13654/j.cnki.naf.2025.03.001

11. Tsygankov, A. P. (2008). Vneshnyaya politika Rossii ot Gorbachova do Putina: formirovaniye natsional’noy identichnosti [Russia’s Foreign Policy from Gorbachev to Putin: Formation of National Identity]. Moscow: Nauchnaya kniga.


Review

For citations:


Daiyu Sh. Rethinking the Concept of the “Global South” in China’s Foreign Policy (2013-2025). Governance and Politics. 2026;5(2):41-50. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24833/2782-7062-2026-5-2-41-50

Views: 31

JATS XML


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.


ISSN 2782-7062 (Print)
ISSN 2782-7070 (Online)