China's Galaxy Empire: A book presentation | Professor John Keane

Professor John Keane's latest book - China's Galaxy Empire, published this month by Oxford University Press - argues that China is a new empire of a kind never before witnessed: a galaxy empire.
Keane's address will chart the developments that have made China's rising empire so novel: the launch of the massive state capitalist Belt and Road Initiative; the rapid rise of a global Chinese middle class; internal colonialism in Tibet and Xinjiang; the growth of the world's largest standing army; and China's efforts to re-define the US-led 'rules-based international order' by means of new currency arrangements, cross-border protocols, bio-protection agreements and peacekeeping and military operations.
He warns against the political and military perils of simple-minded friend-versus-enemy and "Big China, Bad China" thinking. But he also proffers a forewarning to China's rulers: while every rising empire aims to shift the balance of power in its favour, no empire lasts forever; and some are stillborn because they indulge in illusions of greatness and reckless power adventures.

[@himanshujaiswal2558]

great session professor keane, I am looking forward to gain greater insights from your book. Thank you love from India

[@shaundudley4576]

Empire is a bad word when it is misapplied. Here it clearly is. China is a Global power. But it is not an Empire. It engages the world because it must. The world engages China because it must. That is not the metric of Empire. The two examples of its oppressive imperialism Tibet and Xinjiang are patent distortions. This puts into question the bona fides of the author and quite frankly I have so much reading to do that I am reluctant to spend time on something containing such egregious disingenuousness.

[@KevinDrake-89]

The CCP’s propaganda is very effective, and there are two tankies in the comment section

[@andrewhanibelsz5693]

Sigh, I don't have the energy to engage with another turgid Protagorian, but others who chanced upon this doublespeak are advised to read 'The Particularity of Ancient China as an Empire' by Zhou Fangyin in Bridging Two Worlds - Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China, University of California Press (2023) or anything on the return of China by Former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore, George Yeo. ....or maybe just imagine listening to Keane as a Chinese friend, that should suffice, but apparently not.