China and the WTO after New Imperialism

Given market-oriented reforms and opening up since 1978, many view China’s WTO accession in 2001 and a decade’s worth of related activities since then, including an on-going willingness to finance the global capitalist system amid crises, as indicators of a non-Marxist way of thinking. Contrarily, we argue that China’s membership in the WTO and indeed, its intense participation and integration with the global economy represents, on the one hand, an admittedly significant tactical adjustment within a broader strategic approach that, on the other hand, retains key aspects consistent with a Marxist project. In strict terms, we argue Chinese reforms indicate “praxis” and not “pragmatism,” and we illustrate why this distinction is important. We agree that cost/benefit analyses can help understand China’s behaviour, as long as they are coupled with the sort of Marxist historicist perspective that continues to shape Beijing’s policy making. In this sense, we discuss how Beijing views the current era with respect to its vision of the past and the future and, therefore, elucidate a different interpretive framework for assessing on-going tactical adjustments within a global system and way of thinking that is likely at odds with Beijing’s vision of the future.