Made to Order: China-Founded Institutions in Global Governance

Most literature on the institutional consequences of international power shifts has focused on conflicts over, and in, existing international institutions. But as China has emerged as a global power, it has been involved in the creation of a range of new global governance institutions. Alongside seeking the reform of existing institutions, the creation of new institutions constitutes an additional pathway to bringing the institutional order more closely into line with Chinese preferences. But how widespread is this phenomenon, and how are China-founded institutions designed? While some high-profile cases of China-founded institutions have attracted considerable attention, existing research lacks comprehensive data to answer these questions. This article provides a systematic survey of China-founded institutions in global governance. It presents information on all identifiable China-founded global governance institutions created between 1992 and 2022 (n = 38). After describing the sample generation and coding procedures, the article maps the topography of China-founded global governance institutions and addresses the question of which countries join them.