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China at the global summit table: rule-taker, deal-wrecker or bridge-builder?

This article considers China's participation in two key areas of international affairs, climate change and nuclear non-proliferation, taking as its focus the high-profile global summits of 2009 and 2010, with a view to examining how it seeks to operationalise its foreign policy goals. Drawing on Cox's critical view of multilateralism as a ‘terrain of struggle’ between a conservative developed North and a transformative developing South, the discussion examines the agendas of the USA as the world's leading power, on the one hand, and the developing countries and China on the other, the conference contexts, processes and outcomes. Neither simply acquiescent nor seeking to forge an ‘adversarial anti-hegemonic front’, China's role is seen as one of bridge-builder between developed and developing nations, using both resistance and compliance to deflect US power plays and gain leverage in pursuit of a transformative ‘multipolar developmentalism’ towards a new fairer international governance.