Description
This article critically examines, from the perspective of historicising International Relations (IR) theory, how and why the concept of the “Global South” has been received within the epistemic community of Chinese IR. Specifically, it investigates how this process has been moulded by the entanglement — both political and economic — among different agents in China’s academia and policymaking. The article begins by tracing the critical junctures in China’s reception of the concept from 2016 to 2026, identified as “Global South moments.” It then explores why this reception has been fractured and non-linear, transcending the dichotomy of “liberal vs. non-Western.” It proposes that China has adopted the concept through “retrospective discovery” (after Rosenberg 2000) — that is, by revisiting its historical semantic transformation and embracing it only to uncover its legitimising value for realist purposes. Consequently, the article aims to provide a methodological and conceptual toolkit for understanding how political discourses are adapted through local intermediaries in changing circumstances. Practically, it also reflects on how the conceptualisation of the “Global South” reveals the relationship between China’s policymakers and academia, and its implications for understanding China’s rise in current global politics.