Objective/Context:

China’s rise has generated a profound debate on the impact of its growing presence on the international scene. There is a broad discussion on whether China will become a new hegemon or whether it will establish a post-hegemonic scenario. However, these approaches assume that hegemony is an objective and universal concept. This article presents a critique of the concept of hegemony that has sought to explain China’s rise. It considers the paradigmatic limitations of this concept and highlights the importance of abandoning our mental models to seek new ways of conceptualizing China’s changing role in the Global South. Based on a post-structuralist theoretical approach, the article analyzes the severe conceptual limitations in understanding China’s rise because the dominant concepts for understanding this process come from a Eurocentric view of the discipline of international relations.

Methodology:

Different approaches to the concept of hegemony are contrasted from a critical perspective.

Conclusions:

The article emphasizes how the historical experience of the West has shaped key mental models of the discipline, as is the case with how the concept of hegemony is traditionally understood.

Originality:

This study contributes to a better understanding of China’s rise by broadening the paradigmatic range from which to approach this phenomenon.