ABSTRACT
As the People’s Republic of China has emerged over the past decade as an engine of global capitalism, there has been some talk that it may offer an alternative mode of globalization to that represented by neoliberal globalization. The claim draws some plausibility from the refusal of Communist Party leadership to break with the socialist past completely, even though the socialist legacy has been compromised almost irreparably in practice. It is addressed most importantly to the “global South,” which also has become visible once again in the fl ourishing of social and political activity directed against a globalization orchestrated from the “North.” It may be ironic that the very determined incorporation of the PRC in global capitalism, rather than contribute to further globalization, may well be one more signal of its attenuation. It is important, at any rate, to examine the claims to an alternative mode of globalization, which supposedly accounts for the concerns of formerly colonial or neocolonial societies.
