This logic is not neutral but undergirded by an epistemology of privilege---the alternative is to endorse a discursive refusal of their securitized rhetoric in favor of critical examination of IR. Anything else makes confict inevitable absent the self-reflection of the alt.

The article is divided into two parts. The first part establishes the theoretical framework, drawing on discourse theory and privilege studies, and defines key concepts for the subsequent analysis, especially ‘Global North’ and ‘global privilege’. The second part illustrates the dynamics by which the global privilege of ‘Global North’ countries, and particularly the United States, interacts with the hegemonic discursive articulation of China as a threatening enemy across various domains. In conclusion, the article contends that the current hegemonic consensus in the ‘Global North’ about the ‘China threat’ is not just the result of a neutral analysis of reality but rather a discursive construction remarkably informed by global privilege and practices that aim to maintain such privilege, particularly the United States. These findings, in conjunction with the interdisciplinary methodology employed, have profound implications for our comprehension of the complexities inherent in global affairs. They underscore the necessity for self-reflection on privilege, a critical examination of unequal international relations and the importance of empathising with those perceived as the ‘enemy’ in order to foster peaceful coexistence.

Theoretical Framework and Main Concepts

The analysis builds upon discourse theory and its constructivist, non-essentialist and non-reductionist premises. Additionally, it employs discourse-theoretical concepts such as hegemony, articulation, frontiers or contingency to guide the analysis. The discourse-theoretical approach, originally advocated by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe (2001), is especially appropriate to study hegemonic struggle because it seeks to uncover the hidden assumptions, values and power relations that are embedded in political imaginaries constructed by competing discourses. It emphasises the importance of examining how discursive practices in search of ‘hegemony’ link heterogeneous subject positions into a common subjectivity by articulating privileged signifiers—such as ‘democracy’, and ‘the rules-based international order’ in this study—the meaning of which is transformed in the process. Moreover, for such a process of articulation of subject positions to take place, a phenomenon of construction of ‘frontiers’ is also required. For the articulation of a group of equals, a ‘We’, to be genuinely felt by heterogeneous social groups, it must be discursively constructed as an identity at risk due to the existence of a challenging or menacing ‘Other’. Put differently, only when an ‘outsider’ precludes or jeopardises the constitution of ‘our’ identity, can we become conscious of the need to unite vis-à-vis that shared opponent—in the case that concerns us here, ‘China’. Lastly, a political project becomes ‘contingently’ hegemonic when it succeeds in ‘partially’ universalising ‘its particular set of political demands and values’ as the socially accepted common sense (Howarth, 2004, p. 269).

Importantly, this study adopts a discourse-theoretical methodological approach that also takes into consideration the ‘real’ world, relating discursive practices with the material conditions where these emerge (a theoretical exploration of the connections between discourse and privilege, see De Cleen & Ruiz Casado, 2023; see also Carpentier, 2017). Privilege is not just an abstract notion but is manifested in concrete systems and structures in the physical world. Nevertheless, the specific characterisation of its materiality is contingent upon discourse and depends on the meanings attributed to the signifier ‘privilege’. Privileges can be articulated as ‘normal’, representing a natural status quo to be maintained, or as ‘exceptional’ and ‘unfair’ social constructs necessitating change. This novel interdisciplinary approach that combines the study of hegemonic struggle with the analysis of privilege in a global context allows for a more thorough examination of the discursive practices that construct China as an ‘enemy’ and a ‘threat’ in comparatively privileged countries.