Understanding 'responsible' great power identity: the Sino-African case.

This paper represents the early stages of a new project that explores China's search for 'responsible' great power status through the case study of Sino-African aid relations. China has become less hesitant about its intentions of attaining the status of a 'responsible great power' in recent years, and it is often argued that part of its desire to play a more prominent role is manifest in its aid policies to the developing world. In the context of Sino-African relations, China's quest for natural resources and propping up of autocratic regimes has been subject to much scrutiny. It is, however, important to keep in mind that China is also under pressure to provide assistance to the developing world in a 'responsible' manner which befits the status of a 'responsible' great power as defined by the Western powers which continue to dominate International Society to this day. In this paper, I seek to analyse Chinese policy discussions on international aid and explore how Western norms of 'responsible' aid have made inroads into China. Its findings will help us better understand how the Chinese leadership conceptualises what a 'responsible' great power should do, and the extent to which such thinking is influenced by Western discourses. This, in turn generates interesting implications on debates of legitimacy in contemporary International Society, as well as who (especially in China's eyes) is bestowed with the moral authority to bestow recognition of a 'responsible' great power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]