China’s Negotiated Power in South Asia: A Global South Political Economy Analysis

This article examines China’s evolving engagement with South Asia through a Global South political economy lens, conceptualised as a form of negotiated power. Moving beyond security-centric and infrastructure-focused analyses, it argues that Chinese influence in the region is structurally significant yet locally contingent, shaped by domestic political economies, social contestation and geopolitical constraints. Using Sri Lanka as a primary empirical case study and a thematic analysis of China’s digital and social engagements in South Asia as a complementary analytical case, the article demonstrates how Chinese power is negotiated across infrastructure, crisis governance and everyday economic practices. The Sri Lankan experience demonstrates that China’s geo-economic power is mediated by recipient state agency, fiscal capacity and public legitimacy rather than exercised unilaterally. The article contributes to debates on China–South Asia relations by foregrounding Global South autonomy, non-traditional security and the ways in which regional geopolitical rivalry can expand the strategic manoeuvrability of smaller states.