ABSTRACT
This chapter asks whether China can or will lead a successful counter-hegemonic challenge to the United States. According to him, current debates on decline and transition are biased toward a material conception of power, which prevents us from exploring this important issue. Through a cultural perspective supported by empirical evidence, Vucetic argues that China’s insular and propagandistic identity is not exportable. Beijing’s authoritarian capitalism is unlikely to offer a solid foundation for a credible ideological competitor to Western hegemony, no matter how steep the U.S. decline may be. As a result, China’s rise is unlikely to drive a hegemonic transition because the distribution of identities largely supports Western, not Chinese ideology.
