The Position of the International Value Chain in the Hegemonic Rivalry between China and the United States

The hegemony formed by the U.S. which has been successful since the early 1980s, faced a serious challenge at the beginning of the 21st century, because China was seen as a supporter of American capitalism for decades in order to move toward development and change its position, with a new approach to reduce dependence, more control over technology, and hierarchical growth in the international value chain; it laid the groundwork for expanding markets, taking ownership of them, and gaining a greater share of global added value which will be realized with the strategy of dominating the development of new generation technologies. The present study aims to examine the rivalry between the United States and China based on the components of the political economy of neoliberalism and focusing on the role of the international value chain. We will try to answer the main question on how China's strategy towards the U.S. can be analyzed from the perspective of the international value chain. The main hypothesis is that China's strategy in hegemonic rivalry with the U.S. is to control the most beneficial parts of the international value chain to shape the external environment favorably to integrate purposefully into the global capitalist system instead of adapting. The findings from the study are based on the explanatory-descriptive method that what China has planned in recent years as a key element of qualitative and quantitative growth in the value chain ladder among its macro policies are the influence and dominance of the global value chain by role-playing in rules and technical standardization securing the lasting interests of this country by using the existing capacities of the international system.