Though China’s conceptualization of global order has evolved over time, there are some common contours of its understanding of international order since the Qin dynasty, the Imperial Era. The imperial rulers of China favored diplomatic rituals that contributed to bolstering their worldview of global centrality. They mirrored Chinese civilization as the cultural, political, and moral center of the world; thereby, they dispatched envoys to different regions for diplomatic relations and ritualistic submission. Meanwhile, Chinese emperors not only prioritized domestic harmony and stable social order but also engaged with the external world with an approach that mixed cultural influence, diplomacy, trade, and military coercion. The primary Silk Route during the Han Dynasty is tantamount to China’s inherited trait of connecting with the external world for mutual economic and cultural exchanges.

Given its strong economic, diplomatic, and military muscles, Imperial China demonstrated its power, established trade relations, reinforced its tribute system, and shaped the regional order around its idea of China as a Middle Kingdom. To put it differently, China maintained its status till the last decades of the 17th century. Persuasion of isolationism, restricting foreign trade and interaction, during the Ming Dynasty, the crumbling of the tribute system, and the rise of Western imperialism during the Qing Dynasty contributed to the erosion of their Sinocentric world order. Despite the Century of Humiliation, the........

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