China’s Cultural Rise in the Liberal International Order: Threat-Oriented Reflections and the School of Containment in United States Policy

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Corresponding author: Associate Professor of International Relations, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

2 M.A. Graduate in International Relations, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

Abstract

With the expansion of strategic competition between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, culture has also emerged as an important dimension of this geopolitical confrontation. By posing the question of how U.S. cultural strategy has been redefined in response to China’s growing cultural power since 2010, this article examines the transformation of the United States’ approach toward China at the level of cultural policymaking. Drawing on the theoretical framework of the “balance of threat” and employing documentary research within a descriptive-explanatory approach based on library data, as well as the content of speeches and written works, the study seeks to demonstrate that China’s increasing cultural activism, particularly under the leadership of Xi Jinping, through such instruments as public diplomacy, Confucius Institutes, and representations of Chinese civilization, has contributed to the formation of a perception of threat among decision-making elites in the United States. The findings indicate that, in both its official discourse and practical conduct, China has increasingly moved toward redefining the international order, reviving Chinese civilization, and weakening normative structures grounded in liberalism. This perceptual shift has led to the reconfiguration of U.S. cultural strategy in the form of restricting Chinese cultural institutions, strengthening public diplomacy, and promoting American values; a strategy aimed at preserving the United States’ normative position in the contemporary international order.

Keywords

References

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American Strategic Studies
Volume 5, Issue 4 - Serial Number 4
Serial number 20 - Winter 2026
June 2026
Pages 122-158

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History

  • Receive Date: 27 August 2025
  • Revise Date: 21 March 2025
  • Accept Date: 21 March 2026
  • Publish Date: 19 June 2026

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