Introduction
It is a cliché to say that the relationship between China and the world has become complex, multidimensional and interdependent. But that does not mean that we fully understand the complexity of the Chinese attitude towards globalization nor its interdependence with the world in general and the Western industrial democracies in particular, with the implications thereof. The thesis that we develop in this article argues that economic interdependence greatly strengthens Chinese authoritarianism in its ability to politically influence the attitude of States and civil liberties in Western democracies, rather than the reverse. It contradicts the usual thesis that Western ...
