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This chapter is concerned with the organizational characteristics that give the communist state the capacity to shape worker political association and activity in distinctive ways. Corporatism ideally seeks to manage the associated conflicts for the good of the nation; communism seeks to reorganize society in such a way that private interest groups cannot find organized expression or even a clear social identity. The Chinese party-state is represented in the factory by two organizations that shape political relationships and interests right down to the shop floor. The discretion exercised jointly by the shop director and party branch secretary appears to be a throwback to the foreman's empire of the contracting era of factory production in many parts of the world. The chapter then compares Stalinist and Maoist mobilization. The Chinese party appears genuinely to have viewed the moral cultivation of citizens as the only effective way to generate commitment and obedience.

This chapter closely examines the core subject of the book: the Chinese party-state. First, it discusses how images of the state shape foreign policy practices and become “regulative ideas” manifest in the international order. Next, the chapter turns to the Chinese party-state and reflects on how the images, practices, and structures of the party-state have undergone a substantial transformation. The chapter summarizes the historical emergence of the specific duality of a hierarchical party structure coupled with a trend for fragmentation and decentralization, and for empowering subnational institutions and major corporations. This demonstrates that rather than intentionally crafted, the structures and legitimacy of the party-state are the result of China’s integration into the globalizing economy, contested political visions, and competition within the party-state. Finally, the chapter discusses how the specific institutional structure and its underlying political economy shape China’s foreign policy.

The concluding chapter begins with a comparative summary explaining China’s foreign policy contradictions found in the three case comparisons. It demonstrates how the institutionalization of trade-offs between different economic and nationalist legitimization needs within the party-state are decisive. The chapter then discusses the implications for the future international order. Even without developing into an alternative “model,” China’s contradictory approach will facilitate the development of a more particularistic, plural, and fragmented international order. The chapter relates the results of this empirical analysis to the existing literature and develops the theoretical argument: a combination of a constructivist focus on norms and narratives on legitimacy are complementary with the theoretical assumptions in works that emphasize the importance of China’s political economy. The chapter ends with six foundational considerations for policymakers in third countries who seek to preserve a rules-based international order at a time of China’s rise.

The Introduction establishes the book’s central research questions, introduces the reader to China’s contradictory approach to state control, and highlights the limitations of the existing literature while also summarizing the book’s core argument. The People’s Republic of China claims that sovereignty is the guiding principle of its foreign policy. State control, which is constitutive of sovereignty, could serve as a “regulative idea” that shapes a China-led international order. Instead of consistently following this regulative idea, however, China’s foreign policy is contradictory and China is sometimes willing to compromise the principle of state control. These contradictions shape how China is able to influence the future international order. China’s foreign policy contradictions are rooted in its domestic vulnerabilities. This means that instead of replacing it with an alternative “China Model,” China’s rise will lead to a fragmentation, pluralization, and particularization of the international order.