Book presentation delivered at the Australian Institute of International Affairs (Sydney) on 12th of June 2024
Professor John Keane’s latest book – China’s Galaxy Empire, published this month by Oxford University Press – argues that China is a new empire of a kind never before witnessed: a galaxy empire.
Keane’s address will chart the developments that have made China’s rising empire so novel: the launch of the massive state capitalist Belt and Road Initiative; the rapid rise of a global Chinese middle class; internal colonialism in Tibet and Xinjiang; the growth of the world’s largest standing army; and China’s efforts to re-define the US-led ‘rules-based international order’ by means of new currency arrangements, cross-border protocols, bio-protection agreements and peacekeeping and military operations.
He warns against the political and military perils of simple-minded friend-versus-enemy and “Big China, Bad China” thinking. But he also proffers a forewarning to China’s rulers: while every rising empire aims to shift the balance of power in its favour, no empire lasts forever; and some are stillborn because they indulge in illusions of greatness and reckless power adventures.
