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For instance, former German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who fired a parting shot at China during the 2018 Munich Security Conference, slammed China’s Belt and Road Initiative with the allegation that China is developing a comprehensive system that is an alternative to the Western one.

Joseph Nye, “The Kindleberger Trap,” Project Syndicate, Jan. 9, 2017. Hans Kundnani, “What is the Liberal International Order?” German Marshall Fund of United Nations, Policy Brief, March 3, 2017.

Dani Rodrik,

their monopolistic power and undue political influence.5 In addition, there is only flimsy historical evidence to suggest that Western liberal democracies are more credible supporters of an open, rules-based multilateral trading system or rules-based international relations more generally. If history is a guide, one should not forget which democracy triggered the escalation of protectionism and the total collapse of world trade during the 1930s. the smoot-hawley tariff Act of 1930, which was signed by us President Herbert Hoover into law against the advice of more than 1,000 economists, plunged the world into the Great depression.

It is presumptuous to assume that countries that are governed under non-western political systems are necessarily less able to be responsible stakeholders of multilateralism. Many Western politicians have overlooked the simple fact that the prerequisites for being a responsible global stakeholder do not entail being a Western-style liberal democratic state. Instead, the most essential requirements are threefold: first, a functioning modern state that can make credible international commitments within the framework of multilateral arrangements and has all the necessary administrative, monitoring, regulatory, fiscal and coercive capability to fulfill multiple obligations and burden-sharing responsibilities in a highly interdependent global society; second, a resilient and legitimate political system that is buttressed by an institutional and/or cultural foundation that can help it effectively cope with domestic conflict over economic (re)distribution and withstand the

China views today’s system of global governance as imperfect and inadequate. It agrees with most of its liberal characteristics, but not always with its implicit or explicit frozen hierarchy, much less the frequent transgressions by its creator.