The institutional design of China-led international institutions: a qualitative comparative analysis

Abstract Since its opening up in the late 1970s, China has gradually become an important stakeholder in international relations, and it has become involved in the establishment and leadership of more than 20 international institutions. Some of these international institutions follow Western templates of international cooperation, while others seem to have a distinct Chinese signature. To better understand China’s increasing role with regard to international institutions, this article focuses on their institutional design through qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). We find that the institutional design of China-led institutions is influenced by both the policy type of the institution and the composition of the rest of the membership. When other major powers and democratic states are included as members, such institutions tend to have higher levels of institutionalization but also Chinese control. We furthermore find that the design of China-led institutions is more consistent for those established during Xi’s presidency since 2013. These findings are important because they provide new interpretations of China’s uniqueness in institutional design while resonating with previous research findings on Western institutions.