{"id":3788,"date":"2026-06-03T08:01:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T07:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/?p=3788"},"modified":"2026-06-03T08:01:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T07:01:49","slug":"the-renaissance-of-the-middle-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/?p=3788","title":{"rendered":"The renaissance of the Middle Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>China has in recent decades developed into a political and economic global powerhouse, passing by Russia in superpower terms and &#8211; in many respects &#8211; getting much closer to the United States. Is China in other words regaining its own historical status as the &#8220;Middle Kingdom&#8221; which still serves as the classical name for the modern China?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cZhongguo\u201d \u2013 then and today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In English, one usually applies the term of &#8220;Middle Kingdom&#8221; for the old China from back to some thousand years ago. Swedes speak about the &#8220;Mittens rike&#8221; and Germans about the &#8220;Reich der Mitte&#8221; &#8211; all of them expressing something like the &#8220;empire or country of the middle&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Historically, the Chinese have been defining their country as &#8220;zhongguo&#8221; of which &#8220;zhong&#8221; meant middle and &#8220;guo&#8221; something like state or country. In the beginning, \u201czhongguo\u201d was standing for the flourishing region along the Yellow River but started later to describe China as the self-image center of the universe. And still today, \u201czhongguo\u201d is widely used by the Chinese and aims at the country as a whole and its sovereignty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When regarding the latter aspect, I remember many discussions with the Chinese in the past two decades or so who seemed to be convinced that China rapidly was about to be re-organized as the political and economic center of the world. In many respects \u2013 though not all \u2013 this scenario of China\u2019s ongoing move to really becoming the political and economic center of the modern world \u2013 is on its way to come true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At least, we can recognize already some revival of the historical Chinese \u201cMagic Kingdom\u201d as the\/a global center. But the Chinese political leadership certainly wants more than \u201csome revival\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wish today all readers all the best until I come back after my summer break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lnu.se\/api\/media\/12178-fw350fh461cy28cw350ch350\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:94px;height:auto\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Hubert Fromlet<\/em><\/strong> <br>Affiliate Professor at the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>China has in recent decades developed into a political and economic global powerhouse, passing by Russia in superpower terms and &#8211; in many respects &#8211; getting much closer to the United States. Is China in other words regaining its own historical status as the &#8220;Middle Kingdom&#8221; which still serves as the classical name for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>The renaissance of the Middle Kingdom - China Research<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/?p=3788\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The renaissance of the Middle Kingdom - China Research\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"China has in recent decades developed into a political and economic global powerhouse, passing by Russia in superpower terms and &#8211; in many respects &#8211; getting much closer to the United States. Is China in other words regaining its own historical status as the &#8220;Middle Kingdom&#8221; which still serves as the classical name for the [&hellip;]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/?p=3788\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Research\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-03T07:01:47+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-03T07:01:49+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lnu.se\/api\/media\/12178-fw350fh461cy28cw350ch350\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hubert Fromlet\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hubert Fromlet\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/?p=3788\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/?p=3788\",\"name\":\"The renaissance of the Middle Kingdom - China Research\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-03T07:01:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-03T07:01:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/#\/schema\/person\/3c3b67b85e96d1cc89d09dda3a189b38\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/?p=3788\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/\",\"name\":\"China Research\",\"description\":\"A discussion forum on emerging markets, mainly China  \u2013                                          from a macro, micro, institutional and corporate angle.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/#\/schema\/person\/3c3b67b85e96d1cc89d09dda3a189b38\",\"name\":\"Hubert Fromlet\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/?author=126\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The renaissance of the Middle Kingdom - China Research","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/china-research\/?p=3788","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The renaissance of the Middle Kingdom - China Research","og_description":"China has in recent decades developed into a political and economic global powerhouse, passing by Russia in superpower terms and &#8211; in many respects &#8211; getting much closer to the United States. 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