estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 13, n. 2, (jun. 2025), p. 34-53

New projectment economy and Chinese

embedded globalization: insights from the

Chinese football plan

Nova economia do projetamento e globalização instituída

pela China: perspectivas do plano do futebol chinês

La nueva economia del proyectamiento e globalización

instituida por China: perspectivas del plan de fútbol chino

1

Emanuel Leite Junior

DOI: 10.5752/P.2317-773X.2025v13.n2.p34

Enviado em: 04 de abril de 2025

Aceito em: 14 de outubro de 2025

ABSTRACT

After triumphing at the Olympic Games and fulﬁlling the objectives set out by

the various sports policies to achieve Olympic glory, and now under the leader-

ship of Xi Jinping, China has set itself the goal of deepening the strengthening

of its sports industry with the aim of transforming this sector of the economy

into an even more relevant source in the processes of capital accumulation and

the advancement of its productive forces. Aiming for the sports industry to ac-

count for around 5% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2035,

several projects have been put forward since 2014. First, there was the “Opinions

on Accelerating the Development of the Sports Industry and Promoting Sports

Consumption” (

respectively by the “The Overall Reform Plan to Boost the Development of Foo-

tball in China” ( ) and the “China’s medium and long-term foo-

tball development plan (2016-2050)”- ( 2016—2050 ). This paper

), followed in 2015 and 2016

aims to demonstrate how the “Chinese Football Dream” represents the Chinese

Dream and, therefore, serves as an instrument for the realization of two funda-

mental objectives for the Centenary of the People’s Republic of China, namely,

Common Prosperity and the Community with a Shared Future for Mankind.

To this end, this work proposes to interpret the Football Plan from a synthesis

between Chinese political economy and geopolitics, bringing perspectives on

two intersecting political processes: the New Projectment Economy and the

embedded Chinese globalization.

1. Emanuel Leite Junior é Pesquisador Associado da Faculdade Internacional de Futebol da Universidade

Tongji, em Xangai (China). É doutor em Políticas Públicas pela Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal). Sua pesquisa

concentra-se na economia política e nas implicações geopolíticas do futebol, com particular enfoque na China.

Nos últimos anos, tem contribuído consistentemente para periódicos acadêmicos, incluindo Sport in Society;

Sports, Business and Management; Movimento; Revista Brasileira de Ciências do Esporte; e Turismo & Desen-

volvimento. É coautor do livro “China, Football and Development: Socialism and Soft Power” (Routledge, ISBN

9781032511160). Também escreveu livros sobre a história do futebol na União Soviética e sobre os direitos de

transmissão do futebol brasileiro. Orcid 0000-0002-1512-0019 emanuel.leite.junior@gmail.com

34

Emanuel Leite Junior

New projectment economy and Chinese embedded globalization: insights from the Chinese football plan

Keywords: China; Football; Chinese Dream; New Projectment Economy; Em-

bedded Chinese Globalization

RESUMO

Depois de triunfar nos Jogos Olímpicos e cumprir os objetivos traçados pelas

diversas políticas do esporte para atingir a glória Olímpica e já sob a liderança

de Xi Jinping, a China estabeleceu como meta aprofundar o fortalecimento de

sua indústria esportiva com o objetivo de transformar este setor da economia

em uma fonte ainda mais relevante nos processos de acumulação de capital e o

avanço de suas forças produtivas. Visando a que a indústria esportiva represente

cerca de 5% do Produto Interno Bruto (PIB) nacional em 2035, alguns projetos

foram apresentados desde 2014. Primeiro, foram as “Opiniões sobre a acele-

ração do desenvolvimento da indústria desportiva e a promoção do consumo

esportivo” (

vamente, do “Plano Geral de Reforma para Impulsionar o Desenvolvimento do

Futebol na China” ( ) e do “Plano de desenvolvimento do futebol

de médio e longo prazo da China (2016-2050)”- ( 2016—2050

), seguido, em 2015 e 2016 respecti-

). Este artigo propõe demonstrar de que forma o “Sonho do Futebol chinês”

representa o Sonho Chinês e, portanto, serve como um instrumento para a

realização de dois objetivos fundamentais para o Centenário da República

Popular da China, a saber, a Prosperidade Comum e a Comunidade com Futuro

Compartilhado para a Humanidade. Para isso, este trabalho propõe interpre-

tar o Plano do Futebol a partir de uma síntese entre a economia política e a

geopolítica chinesa, trazendo perspectivas acerca de dois processos políticos que

se entrecruzam: a Nova Economia do Projetamento e a globalização instituída

pela China.

Palavras-chave: China; Futebol; Sonho Chinês; Nova Economia do Projetamen-

to; Globalização Instituída pela China

RESUMEN

Luego de triunfar en los Juegos Olímpicos y cumplir los objetivos marcados

por las diversas políticas deportivas para alcanzar la gloria olímpica y ya bajo

el liderazgo de Xi Jinping, China se propuso profundizar el fortalecimiento de

su industria deportiva con el objetivo de transformar este sector de economía

en una fuente aún más relevante en los procesos de acumulación de capital y

el avance de sus fuerzas productivas. Con el objetivo de que la industria del

deporte represente alrededor del 5% del Producto Interior Bruto (PIB) nacional

en 2035, desde 2014 se han presentado algunos proyectos. En primer lugar, se

trataba de las “Opiniones sobre la aceleración del desarrollo de la industria del

deporte y la promoción del consumo deportivo”. (

), seguido, en 2015 y 2016 respectivamente, por el “Plan general de reforma

para impulsar el desarrollo del fútbol en China” (

) y “El medio

de China” y Plan de Desarrollo del Fútbol a Largo Plazo (2016-2050)”- (

2016—2050 ). Este artículo se propone demostrar cómo el “Sueño del

Fútbol Chino” representa el Sueño Chino y, por tanto, sirve como instrumento

para el logro de dos objetivos fundamentales para el Centenario de la República

Popular China, a saber, la Prosperidad Común y la Comunidad con un Pue-

blo Compartido. Futuro para la Humanidad. Para ello, este trabajo propone

interpretar el Plan de Fútbol a partir de una síntesis entre la economía política y

la geopolítica china, aportando perspectivas sobre dos procesos políticos que se

cruzan: la Nueva Economía del Diseño y la globalización instituida por China.

Palabras clave: China; Fútbol; Sueño Chino; Nueva Economia del Proyecta-

miento; Globalización Instituída por China

35

estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 13, n. 2, (jun. 2025), p. 34-53

1 INTRODUCTION

In 2016, Chinese clubs shook the world of football with their sig-

nings, which reached 461.1 million euros, placing the Chinese Super

League (CSL) at the top of the transfer list in the 2016 winter transfer

window (January and February) and among the clubs that spent the most

in both transfer windows that year. Obviously, this boom attracted the

attention of not only the international press, but also academia. Several

studies have sought to explain this phenomenon, in particular by analy-

zing Chinese sports policies, especially three fundamental documents

for strengthening football in the country: “Opinions on Accelerating the

Development of the Sports Industry and Promoting Sports Consumption”

(

), from 2014, followed in 2015 and 2016

respectively by the “The Overall Reform Plan to Boost the Development

of Football in China” ( ) and the “China’s medium and

long-term football development plan (2016-2050)”- (

2050 ), from now on the Chinese Football Plan.

2016—

Among the ﬁrst to address the issues related to Chinese football

are Tan et al., who sought to explain the Chinese football dream and

trying to understand the power relations and interactions between sta-

keholders in Chinese elite football (Tan et al., 2016). Yu et al. did some-

thing similar, examining how the state positioned football and its deve-

lopment as a signiﬁcant cultural and historical event, but framing it in

the context of what they called ‘post-Socialist China’ (Yu et al., 2017), a

deﬁnition, as we will see later, with which we disagree. Peng et al. applied

the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) when reﬂecting on the reforms

in Chinese football since 2015 and explaining the combination of factors

that provided that window of opportunity (Peng et al., 2019). Leite Junior

and Rodrigues were the ﬁrst to address the issue of national identity and

soft power (Leite Junior & Rodrigues, 2017), while Morales Ruvalcaba

and Zhang, in a comparative analysis between China and Argentina, ar-

gued how football can contribute to national power (Morales Ruvalcaba

& Zhang, 2018). More recently, Gündo an presented his considerations

from the perspective of ‘top-level design’ and under the theoretical fra-

mework of ‘Political steering’ (Gündo an, 2024a, 2024b). Leite Junior and

Rodrigues have extensive work on football in China, ranging from its

innovative character and the role of the Chinese state in creative destruc-

tion (Leite Junior & Rodrigues, 2019, 2024), to sports diplomacy, with a

particular focus on China’s relations with Portuguese-speaking countries

(Leite Junior & Rodrigues, 2021, 2024; Leite Junior et al., 2019), but also

how football intertwines with the Belt and Road Initiative (Leite Junior

& Rodrigues, 2020). However, no work has ever gone in-depth into the

reﬂection of how the Chinese Football Plan, while helping us to unders-

tand, is also a case study of how the New Projectment Economy (NPE)

and Embedded Chinese Globalisation (ECG) manifest themselves in the

real movement, as this paper aims to do.

Football is way more than simply the “beautiful game”. Football is

a cultural phenomenon, a business on a global scale with ramiﬁcations

in various economic sectors and at the same time has political, political

36

Emanuel Leite Junior

New projectment economy and Chinese embedded globalization: insights from the Chinese football plan

economy and geopolitical dimensions. More than that, only a very limited

number of sports attain the heights of genuine popular culture and reach

well beyond the niche of their immediate producers and consumers, and

in that sense football represent one of the very few languages that is un-

derstood on a global scale (Markovits & Rensmann, 2010). In that sense,

Giulianotti and Robertson state that “sport, in particular football, consti-

tutes one of the most dynamic and sociologically enlightening domains

of globalization” and that being “the global game”, football helps us to

theoretically and empirically explore multidimensional and long-term

processes of globalization (Giulianotti & Robertson, 2004). That is why

we concur with Hargreaves, for whom power is diﬀused and circulates

throughout the social body and sport, football in particular, constitutes a

fundamental component of power networks (Hargreaves, 1987).

Taking this into consideration, the theoretical framework and con-

ceptual discussions of this paper reﬂect the methodological option for

dialectical historical materialism, that is, Marxism as Science (Lukács,

1972). According to Lukács, “the materialist dialectic can understand uni-

versality in a continuous tension with singularity, in a continuous con-

version to particularity and vice versa” (Lukács, 1978, p. 104). As Milton

Santos taught us, ‘the whole can only be known through knowledge of

the parts and the parts can only be known through knowledge of the

whole’, however, as Santos stated, ‘these two truths are, however, partial’,

because ‘to reach the total truth, it is necessary to recognize the joint

movement of the whole and the parts, through the process of totaliza-

tion’ (Santos, 2006, p. 77). In other words, we cannot look at the Chinese

Football Plan individually, but rather as part of the universal, integrated

into its totality, that is, into its social, political, economic and geopolitical

context. In the Chinese Football Plan, we understand that it is an excel-

lent analytical tool to understand, on the one hand, the economic and so-

cial formation of China and, on the other, the disruptive dynamics caused

by the Chinese rise in the scenario of global geopolitics.

That is the reason why this paper proposes to demonstrate how

the Chinese Football Dream is related to the Chinese Dream, that is, the

realization of the development of football in China as an instrument for

the concretization of Common Prosperity and Community with Shared

Future for Mankind. Which consequently allows us to explore how

the Football Plan helps us understand concepts such as the “Embedded

Chinese Globalisation” – and how this practice eﬀectively diﬀers from

that Western hegemon, representing an institutional and multidimen-

sional historical construct, with not only diﬀerent characteristics, but as

an alternative to neoliberal globalization (Jabbour et al., 2021; Vadell et

al., 2019) -, and also the emergence of a new economic-social formation

in China, a higher stage of Chinese socialism, the “New Projectment

Economy” (Gabriele & Jabbour, 2022; Jabbour & Dantas, 2021).

It is precisely the analysis of the role of the Football Plan in rea-

lizing the Chinese Dream and how the achievement of its objectives

is directly related to Embedded Chinese Globalization (ECG) and the

New Projectment Economy (NPE), which, in turn, intersect, that makes

this work unique. Thus, this paper contributes, at the same time, to the

37

estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 13, n. 2, (jun. 2025), p. 34-53

deepening of the reﬂection on football in China and to the theoretical

discussion on ECG and NPE, taking Chinese football as a case study.

2 EMBEDDED CHINESE GLOBALIZATION, AN ALTERNATIVE TO

NEOLIBERAL CAPITALISM

To understand what ECG means, particularly as an alternative do

neoliberal capitalism, we ﬁrst need to have in mind what we comprehend

as (capitalist) globalization. Academic production on globalization is wide

and heterogeneous. However, there is a general understanding that glo-

balization presupposes the idea of interconnectivity and interdependen-

ce. Giddens, for example, alludes to the concept of “living in one world”,

highlighting the growing interdependence between individuals, groups

and nations, which, therefore, makes globalization a result of processes

of globalization and internationalization (Giddens, 2009, p. 126). It was

from the 1990s onwards that the term globalization came into fashion,

becoming widely used in many debates in the world of politics, business

and media (Giddens, 2009).

Also from the 1990s onwards, “globalization” came to be associa-

ted with the “world expansion of capitalism”, representing a “new world

order” (Chanda, 2007; Duﬀey, 2009). Castells understands that a new eco-

nomy emerged on a global scale in the last quarter of the 20th century,

looking at the transformations in the social organization of communi-

cation and information to explain that globalization is a network of pro-

duction, culture and power, which is constantly being altered by techno-

logical advances, especially in information technologies (Castells, 2009).

Harvey, on his turn, coined the term “time-space compression” to ex-

plain how the ﬂow of capital, which moves faster and faster, is driven by

increasingly accelerated economic activities (production, circulation and

exchange), mainly due to advances in technology. communication and

transport, leads to the breaking of spatial barriers and distances (Harvey,

1989, p. 199). Harvey also argues that the “deregulation of ﬁnance, which

began in the late 1970s, accelerated after 1986, became unstoppable in the

1990s” (Harvey, 2011).

So, what became common sense as “globalization” basically is

the globalization of neoliberal capitalism. With the neoliberalization of

markets, ﬁnance became a relatively autonomous ﬁeld of capitalist pro-

ﬁtmaking with its own rules and internal life, causing the ﬁnancial proﬁt

to have a predatory aspect setting it apart from proﬁt in the sphere of

production and this predatory dimension of ﬁnance has placed its mark

on ﬁnancialization (Lapavitsas, 2013, p. 799). As Dunford and Liu (2018)

pointed out, the consequences of greater neoliberal interdependence and

interconnectedness were mixed, because, according to them, countries

such as China that made non-neoliberal choices gained, while those that

implemented World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) struc-

tural adjustment programs suﬀered: increasing class inequalities; increa-

sed concentration of income forming an smaller, restricted and even more

isolated global elite; loss of purchasing power for wage earners in deve-

loped countries and, of course, impoverishment of the working classes

38

Emanuel Leite Junior

New projectment economy and Chinese embedded globalization: insights from the Chinese football plan

in less developed countries. Hence, there is scope to argue that neolibe-

ral globalization is a manifestation of imperialism (Petras & Veltmeyer,

2000) or, as Harvey said, “new imperialism” (Harvey, 2003). Even the IMF

recognized that the globalization of neoliberal capitalism has failed. In

the study entitled “Neoliberalism: Oversold?” the IMF admits that ins-

tead of delivering growth, some neoliberal policies have increased ine-

quality, in turn jeopardizing durable expansion (Ostry et al., 2016).

ECG, on the other hand, emerges with the Chinese presenting a

diﬀerent modus operandi to the world. China proposes to the international

community a diﬀerent global development model, that is why ECG can

also be read as globalization with Chinese characteristics – a more inclu-

sive and open mode, based on cooperation, exchange, and mutual gain

(Dunford & Liu, 2018; Liu & Dunford, 2016). China invites the world to

a peaceful, multipolar relationship that seeks to respect the models and

stages of development of each nation, without imposing social, economic

and political models as a counterpart, as the Western hegemon do when

impose their neoliberal globalization. In other words, ECG, as a manifes-

tation of globalization with Chinese characteristics, represents an alter-

native to the neoliberal globalization. So, we can argue that the Beijing

Consensus poses as an alternative to the Washington Consensus (Mendes,

2010; Wang and Lu, 2008). ECG, therefore, is intrinsically related to the

construction of the “Community of Shared Future for Mankind”.

That leads us to the concept of “embeddedness”. Li Xing claims that

the Chinese globalization is diﬀerent from the one imposed by Western

forces. Analyzing the transition from feudalism to capitalism, Li reﬂects

on “the phenomenon of the disembedded transformation from a ‘society

with market’ (pre-capitalist society) to a ‘market society’ (capitalist so-

ciety)” (Li, 2016, p. 19), to introduce the notion of “embeddedness”, im-

plying that individuals and institutions are engaged in ongoing social

relations. These relations, accordingly, cannot be understood as being

independent from one another (Li, 2016). Li looks at a free-market eco-

nomy as “an economic system directed, controlled, and regulated by the

market mechanism alone, in which all values are economically based,

and nothing exists outside the free market framework”. As such, a free

market-driven society is characterized by the “disembeddness” of market

forces from a wider context of social relations, norms, and institutions. In

Li’s (2016, p. 20) line of though, the concept of “embeddedness” refers to

“the extent to which economic rationality and practice is constrained by

non-economic institutions”, demonstrating that “socio-cultural and so-

cio-political factors play a vital role in inﬂuencing economic activities and

shaping distinctive institutional forms”. In the same vein, Amin states

that “the law of value not only dictates economic life under capitalism

but all aspects of social life (this is what is meant by market alienation)”

(Amin, 1996, p. 219). As we are going to see in the following section of this

paper, this is the opposite of what happens in China, with the emergence

of the New Projectment Economy.

At the foreign relations ﬁeld, considering the need for its econo-

mic and social development, China focuses its geopolitical vision on an

expansion of its relations that results in the promotion of a globalization

39

estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 13, n. 2, (jun. 2025), p. 34-53

process diﬀerent from that dominated by neoliberal capitalism. In this

vision, there is no primacy of free markets and the ﬁnancialization of

the economic system to override national interests. What exists is the

attempt to build up what Vadell et al. (2019, p. 49) call a “parallel institu-

tional superstructure, mainly ﬁnancial, through multilateral and pluri-

lateral initiatives”. Among these initiatives, the same authors highlight

the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the New Development

Bank (NBD), the Contingency Reserve Arrangement (ARC) and the

Silk Road Fund (FRS). That is why they coin the expression ‘embedded

Chinese globalization’ (Vadell et al., 2019), similarly to what Liu and

Dunford (2016) classify as ‘inclusive globalization’, one based on inter-

connectivity, cooperation, exchange, win-win relationships, which have

strong investments in infrastructures and a ﬁnancial superstructure con-

trolled by the States. The Belt and Road Initiative is probably the greatest

example of the ECG and China’s contribution to building a “Community

with a shared future for mankind”.

As we have already introduced, we consider that the ECG (Vadell

et al., 2019) resonates the Chinese Dream, which, according to Xi Jinping

himself, will only be fully achieved if “shared with the world” (Xi, 2014,

p. 62). The Chinese leader developed Hu Jintao’s idea of common destiny

(The State Council The People’s Republic Of China, 2011) and presented

the idea of a ‘community with a shared future for mankind’ (Staiano, 2020;

Vadell, 2021). Although mentioned in Xi’s public speeches since 2013 (Xi,

2014), it gained international signiﬁcance in 2015, when Xi, at the United

Nations, ﬁrst drawn the attention of the international community to the

idea of building a community of shared future for mankind, arguing for

the need to build up a new model of international relations with mutually

beneﬁcial cooperation (Xi, 2017). It is worth noticing that, in 2018, the

idea was incorporated into the Constitutions of the People’s Republic of

China (PRC) and the Communist Party of Chine (CPC), together with

the conception of rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, both integrative

parts of Xi’s thought on ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new

era’. This proposition can be related to ancient Chinese core philosophical

values, which, per se, underpin a pivotal diﬀerence between the ECG and

the neoliberal globalization. That is because the idea of a ‘Community of

a shared future for mankind’ ﬁnds roots in Confucianism and its advoca-

cy for a prosperous society and great harmony (Hu et al., 2014). Besides

that, one can also ﬁnd these ideas in Marxism tradition. Analyzing the

division of labor and its implications on the contradiction between the

individual interest or individual family interest and the communal inte-

rest of all individuals, Marx and Engels refer to the socialization of labor:

mutual relationship is more advantageous through socialization, in order

to guarantee a common future (Marx & Engels, 1976).

Therefore, we follow the understanding of Vadell and Jabbour,

who state that the ECG emerges as a historical negation of neoliberal glo-

balization, and is also an expression of a new economic-social formation

that emerges in China, the NEP, which we will discuss below (Vadell &

Jabbour, 2023).

40

Emanuel Leite Junior

New projectment economy and Chinese embedded globalization: insights from the Chinese football plan

3 NEW PROJECTMENT ECONOMY, A HIGHER STAGE OF SOCIALISM

WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS

China’s economic, technological and social development stands as

one of the most impressive transformations in modern history. At the

same time the rise of China has caused a disruptive dynamic on the global

geopolitical scene and has also shaken the Western hegemonic status quo.

Many tried to label the Chinese socialist experience, with deﬁnitions ran-

ging from ‘free market economy’ to a type of ‘state capitalism’, as Jabbour

and Capovilla observe, something that encompasses schools of thought

as distinct as neoclassical economists to Western Marxists (Jabbour &

Capovilla, 2024), and there are others, as mentioned before, who refers

to ‘post-socialism’ (Yu et al., 2017). We do not align with any of these in-

terpretations. We follow Heilmann’s understanding that China’s develop-

ment dynamics require the use of analytical perspectives that go beyond

preconceived typologies (Heilmann, 2018). Gabriele and Schettino, when

analyzing ‘market socialism’ in China, pointed out the need for a new

typology, peculiar to the Chinese experience, since they identiﬁed the

emergence of a Modern Mode of Production (Gabriele; Schettino, 2012).

Jabbour went further and suggested that a new economic-social forma-

tion is emerging (Jabbour, 2019, p. 113), an idea Gabriele adhere to when

writing on this topic together with Jabbour (Gabriele & Jabbour, 2022, p.

325).

Therefore, we adopt the view that socialism with Chinese charac-

teristics represents a multifaceted social formation (Jabbour et al., 2021).

This framework restructured development planning in terms of content,

processes, and methods, integrating market coordination while main-

taining overarching state control (Heilmann, 2018, p. 132). The Chinese

government continues to pursue long-term political agendas aimed at

anticipating, harnessing, and shaping national and global market trends

(Heilmann, 2018, p. 131). And as Huang notes, it is important to obser-

ve how the term for ‘planning’ in Chinese has evolved in recent years.

The original terms, jihua (

) and zhilingxing jihua (

) or ‘comman-

dist planning’, shifted to zhidaoxing jihua (

), meaning ‘guidance

planning’. More recently, the term jihua was abandoned entirely in fa-

vor of guihua (

Commission (

), as adopted by the National Development and Reform

) (Huang, 2013, p. 576). Huang emphasizes the

importance of this change when explaining that in Chinese the terms

jihua and guihua have slightly diﬀerent connotations: guihua gives the

idea of something more comprehensive and longer term than jihua, thus

highlighting that aspect of contemporary planning (Huang, 2013, p. 576).

Thus, we understand that the Chinese catching-up process built its

own economic-social formation, based on its concrete reality, through the

dialectical process called market socialism, which allowed the country,

by adopting elements of the market economy, to undertake its impressive

process of development and capital accumulation. In this way, our point

of view aligns with Jabbour et al., who classify the PRC as a society led by

a political force determined to advance towards socialism (Jabbour et al.,

2021). Here, planning is viewed as the deliberate human action for aiming

41

estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 13, n. 2, (jun. 2025), p. 34-53

to ensuring stability that makes sense in the form of an essential econo-

mic logic of market socialism (Jabbour, 2019, p. 112). We are thus witnes-

sing an advanced phase of socialism with Chinese characteristics, that is,

we are facing the emergence of a new economic-social formation, which

Jabbour conceptualized as the New Projectment Economy (Gabriele &

Jabbour, 2022, p. 325; Jabbour & Dantas, 2021; Jabbour et al., 2021).

In the intricate framework of the NPE, diﬀerent modes of produc-

tion coexist. This is a typical condition for a long process of transforma-

tion of the dominant mode of production, as happened, for example, du-

ring the transition from feudalism to capitalism, as we referred above.

In fact, the coexistence of diﬀerent modes of production in a transitional

period is something found in Marxist literature. In instance, we ﬁrst have

in the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels establishing the basis for

the conception of the transition from capitalism to communism. ‘The

proletariat will use its political supremacy to gradually wrest all capital

from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the

hands of the State, that is, of the proletariat organized as the ruling class;

and to increase the total productive forces as rapidly as possible’ (Marx

& Engels, 1976a). From this statement, three points stand out. Marx and

Engels recognize that the transition will be ‘gradual’, but at the same

time they emphasize the importance of the ‘commanding heights of the

economy’, when they state that ‘the proletariat will use its political su-

premacy to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the

State’. The third point has to do with the recognition of the coexistence

of diﬀerent modes of production in this period of transition. After all, in

addition to being a change by degrees, they place the need to ‘increase

the total number of productive forces as rapidly as possible’, which means

that by then there will be at least more than one productive force.

In 1875, writing The Critique of the Gotha Program (1875), Marx

refers once again to the transition to communism, in which he describes

that communist society will inevitably be marked with the birthmarks

of the old society (Marx & Engels, 1976b). The critical factor, therefore, is

identifying which mode of production is dominant and which class and/

or political force(s) has control over objectively strategic factors (Jabbour

et al., 2021).

In China, as we know, the State holds the centrality of political and

economic power, in a ‘political-social composition centered on forces that

advocate the socialist direction – notably the historical bloc formed by

the Communist Party of China (CPC)’ (Jabbour & Capovilla, 2024, p. 4).

Jabbour and Capovilla also add that it is the constructive path of socia-

lism that allows the emergence and development of concepts such as the

New Projectment Economy, which creates the basis for transforming the

fundamental development needs of society into technologies that con-

ceive, design and implement strategic projects for the collective good,

instead of serving capital or the market. In China, under the leadership of

the Communist Party, addressing social demands consciously becomes a

genuine tool for fostering social rationality (Jabbour & Capovilla, 2024).

It is the centrality of power in the State and the use of rationality

to produce common goods that diﬀerentiates socialism with Chinese

42

Emanuel Leite Junior

New projectment economy and Chinese embedded globalization: insights from the Chinese football plan

characteristics, which advances in the form of an emerging new econo-

mic-social formation (New Projectment Economy), from a typically ca-

pitalist experience and, therefore, cannot be confused with the adoption

of the ‘unrestricted free market’, ‘state capitalism’ or ‘post-socialism’. In

China, this is not the case, because the market does not control, direct,

or regulate. The market, rather, is at the service of national development,

under the political and economic power of the State. This is the reason

why Li (2016) argues that China’s unique ‘embedded’ process is realized

and maintained through a dynamic state-market-society relationship.

The centrality of power in using social rationality in the service of the de-

velopment of productive forces aiming at the transformation of concrete

reality, through planning and projectment, is precisely what characteri-

zes the New Projectment Economy (Jabbour & Capovilla, 2024, p. 5).

4 THE CHINESE FOOTBALL PLAN

As we have already argued above, sport is not dissociated with the

politics and geopolitics of a country. On the contrary, sports can be extre-

mely useful civil society tools for a nation to seek legitimacy and recogni-

tion (Allison & Monnington, 2002), both internally and externally, as well

as sports public policies can both promote social inclusion and the deve-

lopment of the sports industry – at the national and international levels.

Therefore, elite sport and the sports industry have their historical evolu-

tion closely linked to globalization processes (Giulianotti & Robertson,

2004, 2009; Markovits & Rensmann, 2010).

Football, as has been already stated, helps us to perceive the univer-

sal in particular, understanding that the universal is a fragment of an in-

dividual, which, in turn, is, in one way or another, universal. An example

of this dialectic is found precisely in how football helps us to understand

globalization. According to Giulianotti and Robertson “football at the

same time reﬂects and contributes to the advancement of globalization

processes in various ways”. After all, “the genealogy of the game is clo-

sely linked to globalization processes”, since the expansion of modern

football, encoded in England, which is confused with the global inﬂuen-

ce of English commerce and, more recently, the cultural interpenetra-

tion by economic institutions and ideologies in football (Giulianotti &

Robertson, 2009). This was how modern football entered China, through

Hong Kong, which was colonized by the British Empire after the Opium

War (1839-1842). So as happened in several parts of the world, British sol-

diers, traders, and missionaries played football and the local population

began to take an interest, starting to play with foreigners. From Hong

Kong, football reached Shanghai (in 1879), Beijing (in the late 19th cen-

tury) and other Chinese cities.

However, football has always had great diﬃculty ﬂourishing in

China, for several reasons (Leite Junior & Rodrigues, 2024). In the 1990s,

the 14th CPC Congress in October 1992 established the socialist mar-

ket economy system oﬃcially and Deng Xiaoping Theory on socialism

with Chinese characteristics became the guiding theory. In line with

the economic reforms, and in order to modernize sports, the General

43

estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 13, n. 2, (jun. 2025), p. 34-53

Administration of Sport (GAS) restructured the elite sport system, dri-

ving the move towards the commercialization and professionalization of

sport. Football has undergone a major transformation. Before 1992, there

was no sports commercial activities in China, so Chinese sports industry

really kicked oﬀ after the establishment of the socialist market economy

(Zhan, 2016). Football was the pioneer of the reform in sport and Chinese

Football Association (CFA) took the lead in the sports community ‘self-

-managing’ its own aﬀairs (Hong & Zhouxiang, 2013). Despite this, foo-

tball continued to fail to prosper as imagined with the projects implemen-

ted in the 1990s and early 2000s (Leite Junior & Rodrigues, 2024).

So, in 2014, as mentioned in the introduction, the Chinese State

Council issued a document to boost China’s sports industry: “Opinions

on Accelerating the Development of Sports Industry and Promoting

Sports Consumption” (

). This strategy is

commonly deemed as the milestone marking the take-oﬀ of the Chinese

sports industry (Liu, 2017). To meet that challenge, the Chinese gover-

nment sees the development of football as the driving force behind this

growth process. For this reason, “The Overall Reform Plan to Boost the

Development of Football in China” (

) was issued in 2015,

a kind of preamble to the main document, from April 2016: “China’s me-

dium and long-term football development plan (2016-2050)”- (

2016—2050 ).

To talk about the Football Plan, we need to identify the public pro-

blem or problems that led the Chinese authorities to formulate strategic

planning – public policies – aimed at the development of football industry

and practice in the country. For instance, the poor performance of the

Chinese football team should be addressed by the government to solve

it (thus, this is seen as a problem). Comparing the performance of the

Chinese football team with those of Japan and South Korea, for example,

constitutes a problem. People will see a problem quite diﬀerently if it is

put into one category rather than another. For instance, the categoriza-

tion of the need for football development in China as an economic issue

(it could play a signiﬁcant role in the development of the whole sports

industry) may inﬂuence the level of political interest and attract policy

resources.

So, whatweretheproblemsthatcanbeidentiﬁedrelatingtoChinese

football and the sports industry in China? The country aims to have one

of the largest national sports economies in the world. The sports industry

is expected to become one of the key industries in the national economy

by 2035, representing a GDP share of 5%. In 2014, the year “Opinions on

Accelerating the Development of Sports Industry and Promoting Sports

Consumption” was published, it corresponded to 0.64% of GDP. Football,

in addition to being identiﬁed alongside basketball and volleyball, as one

of the three sports that should be developed as the starting point for the

development of the sports industry, was placed as a priority, with the need

to develop a medium-and long-term development plan due to lagging in

development (State Council Of The People’s Republic Of China, 2014).

To address these problems, in March 2015, the Chinese government

initiated a programme for football reform, which was characterized by

44

Emanuel Leite Junior

New projectment economy and Chinese embedded globalization: insights from the Chinese football plan

a new public policy entitled “The Overall Plan for Chinese Football

Reform and Development”. As the Government outlined in the 50-point

document: “Since Comrade Xi Jinping has become General Secretary in

the 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, he has placed the

development of football on the agenda in order to build China as a great

sports nation” (State Council Of The People’s Republic Of China, 2015).

With this report, China recognized another problem: the need to develop

football at all levels, not only elite level but also youth participation in

football as a mid-term goal. In the following year, the Government issued

“China’s medium and long-term football development plan (2016-2050)”.

This document turned the issue into an even more important problem by

placing the development of football as part of China’s national strategy.

The policy make it clear the role of football development to the sports

industry in the country stating: “football has a leading role for China’s

sports development and reform” (State Council Of The People’s Republic

Of China, 2016). As Yu et al. put it, the new policy represents the update of

substantial central planning and sizeable resources allocations (Yu et al.,

2017, p. 3). The Football Plan also draws attention to the living standards

of the people and to the crucial period of building comprehensively a

society in which the material needs of most citizens are adequately met.

While also connects the revitalization and development of football with

the construction of a powerful sports nation, the promotion of social

development and the realization of the Chinese Dream (State Council

of the People’s Republic of China, 2016). Therefore, as we can see, the

Football Plan serves as a tool for the fulﬁlment of one of the most impor-

tant Chinese national strategies: the Chinese Dream.

5 THE FOOTBALL PLAN AND THE NPE

Chinese authorities want the country to consolidate itself as a po-

werful sports nation. Considering the success of the country’s Olympic

and Paralympic strategies, what is meant by “powerful sports nation” has

two immediate meanings: success in sports of great international popu-

larity, such as football, and the Chinese sports industry reaching the goal

level of the largest market in the sector in the world. Without a doubt,

these are audacious targets. Regarding sports industry indices, the objec-

tive is to reach 5 trillion Yuan by 2025 (about US$ 712 billion) and that by

2035 the sector will represent 5% of Chinese GDP. In 2022 it reached US$

461.3 billion.

The Football Plan is a public policy under the tutelage of the State

Council’s Oﬃce of the Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference on Football

Reform and Development, created solely for its execution. Which brings

together, among others, 11 ministries, State Council commissions, local

and regional government bodies and the Publicity Department of the

Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The various au-

thorities speciﬁcally referenced in the Football Plan are:

45

estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 13, n. 2, (jun. 2025), p. 34-53

Table 1. Chinese Authorities with responsibilities according to the Football

Chinese state institution

Organizational level

Inter-Ministerial Joint Conference on Football Reform & Development (

)

State Council Oﬃce

China Insurance Regulatory Commission (

China Securities Regulation Commission (

)

State Council Commission

)

National Health and Family Planning Commission

(

)

National Development and Reform Commission

State Council Commission

(

)

Ministry of Civil Aﬀairs (

Ministry of Commerce (

)

Ministry

)

Ministry of Culture and Tourism (

)

Ministry of Education (

Ministry of Finance (

)

Ministry of Foreign Aﬀairs (

)

Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development

(

)

Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security

Ministry

(

)

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

(

)

Ministry of Natural Resources (

Ministry of Public Security (

)

Ministry

)

Ministry

State Administration for Industry and Commerce

Government Agency

(

)

National Radio and Television Administration (

State Taxation Administration (

State General Administration of Sport (

People’s Bank of China (

)

Government Agency

Central Bank

)

Local and Provincial Government (

CPC Propaganda Department (

)

Provincial/Municipal Government

Communist Party

Judiciary

)

Supreme People’s Court (

)

Supreme People’s Procuratorate (

)

Judiciary

Source: Leite Junior & Rodrigues, 2024.

Accordingly, to transform China into a future global football po-

wer, the original plan proposed three development stages, each one es-

tablishing goals to be fulﬁlled in 2020, 2030 and 2050, respectively: (1) By

2020: 20,000 specialized football schools, 70,000 football ﬁelds, 30 to 50

million primary and secondary school students practicing football. (2) By

2030: 50,000 specialized football schools, the Chinese Men team being

one of the best in Asia, and the Women team established as “world-class”.

(3) Until 2050: the Men team in the top 20 of the FIFA ranking, established

as a global football power.

As noted, the formulation involved a complex process, with seve-

ral stages and the participation of several sectors, not restricted to the

Government, including the participation of civil society (e.g. scholars).

However, it is the Football Plan’s implementation that demonstrates to

46

Emanuel Leite Junior

New projectment economy and Chinese embedded globalization: insights from the Chinese football plan

us how China’s NPE, a complex political and economic system, operates:

from Central Government to Provincial and Municipal Governments, as

well as the interaction between State and Market. As the Football Plan

states, the Chinese central government leads the “reform and innovative

development” and is responsible for fully displaying that “football has a

leading role for China’s sports development and reform”. However, the

policy also highlights the role of provincial and municipal governments

and the non-governmental partners. In other words, from the central

leadership, which sets out the grand vision and establishes the targets,

there is a necessary decentralization of competences, with the delegation

of responsibilities, so that the policy is operationalized and implemented.

This also allows the constant adaptation to change that may occur in the

surrounding environment, justifying the continual adjustments during

implementation (Heilmann, 2018, p. 4). This also highlights the observa-

tion we have already brought from Huang about the change of the term

“planning” in Chinese, from zhilingxing jihua (

) or “commandist

planning” to zhidaoxing jihua ( ) or “guidance planning” (Huang,

2013, p. 576). This is because the centralization of decision-making is still

in the hands of Central Government, but planning serves as a guide for

other actors to implement it. In relation to the sphere of government

power at the provincial or municipal level, we can ﬁnd various football

plans at the local and provincial levels. Provinces generally issue a me-

dium-to long-term football development plan (

), while cities

at the municipal, sub-provincial (prefecture), and county (sub-prefecture)

levels issue a document called the Overall Program of Football Reform

and Development (

). An example of responsibility at the lo-

cal level are the specialized football schools, which are closely linked to

training academies that are typically attached to public primary and mi-

ddle schools.

However, one of the most interesting aspects to observe in the

implementation of the Football Plan is the active participation of State-

Owned Enterprises (SOE), and private businesses. That is, how this pro-

ject operates in market relations. If we look at the three main policies

issued to develop the sports industry since the “Opinions on Accelerating

the Development of Sports Industry and Promoting Sports Consumption”

(2014), we will notice that all of them foresee an active participation

of the private sector. In fact, both the policy from 2014 and the “The

Overall Reform Plan to Boost the Development of Football in China”

(2015) in their Guiding Ideology section state the inﬂuence and guidance

of Deng Xiaoping Theory, while the Football Plan mentions the “Four

2

Comprehensives” and the necessary use of the reform and innovation

as a driving force. We can also ﬁnd the guidelines of market socialism in

the basic/fundamental/development principles of the three policies un-

der analysis. The “Opinions on Accelerating” and “The Overall Reform

2. The Four Comprehensives or the Four-pronged Comprehensive Strategy is a list of political goals for China,

put forward by Xi Jinping. Xi spoke of them for the ﬁrst time in December 2014. The Four Comprehensives are:

complete a moderately prosperous society; further reform; to advance the rule of law; strengthen the Party

discipline (Xi, 2017, p. 22).

47

estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 13, n. 2, (jun. 2025), p. 34-53

Plan” address more the issue. Both bring as guiding fundamentals “reform

and innovation”, “further simplify administration and decentralization”,

“strengthen market supervision”, and “create a market environment with

competitive and equal participation”. At the market role, both consider

the importance of improving “the market mechanism, actively cultivate

multi-market entities, attract social capital participation”. Furthermore,

both reinforce the role of the State “on overall coordination, giving full

play to the positive interaction between the sports industry and the in-

dustry, promoting the integration of the sports industry and other indus-

tries, and achieving the coordinated development of the sports industry

and the economy and society”. While in the Football Plan, we ﬁnd the

prerogatives of creating a development environment of equal participa-

tion and fair competition, in addition to the development of opening-up,

increasing the level of domestic and foreign opening up.

The implementation of the Football Plan is a good example for us

to observe how the NPE operates in a speciﬁc case. On the one hand, be-

cause it has been in part driven by private initiative. That is because many

of the Chinese investments that have been made both in the national and

international football markets have been through private companies. On

the other hand, since 2017 we have seen the government supervising and

the Chinese Football Association (CFA) intervening to ensure that the

development of football and the football market in China takes place in

a ﬁnancially sustainable manner. In June 2017, for example, a fee of 100%

on the value of international transfers above €5.9 million was implemen-

ted (rate reverted to ﬁnance training centers). This had a huge impact. In

2016, Chinese clubs broke the transfer record in Asian football history by

spending €461.1 million. In 2017, the amount spent dropped to €239 mil-

lion and in 2018 it went down to €175 million. In December 2020, the CFA

tightened the belts on football clubs again. The regulation of wages and

payrolls became stricter. A foreign player can only earn up to €3 million

annually and a Chinese player up to €628 thousand. Club sheets cannot

exceed €75 million, with only €10 million for foreigners. All these mea-

sures are unimaginable in the increasingly unequal European football,

marked by the hyper-concentration of capital in the hands of a few clubs,

from a few countries.

6 THE FOOTBALL PLAN AND THE ECG

Throughout the text, references were made to Chinese Dream,

Shared Future and Common Prosperity. It was also mentioned that

the development project for the Chinese sports industry, which has the

Football Plan as its main implementation tool, is directly related to these

concepts and the objectives of Chinese Government. The realization of

the Chinese Dream ideal involves the realization of the advancement of

Chinese society, which means achieving a Common Prosperity, which is,

at the domestic level, full prosperity with a less unequal society, based on

the redistribution of wealth. But externally, it is necessary to understand

that China, from its dialectical formulation in which Confucianism and

Marxism guide its actions, has as its goal a world in which prosperity is

48

Emanuel Leite Junior

New projectment economy and Chinese embedded globalization: insights from the Chinese football plan

common to all, that is, in which there is a ‘Community of a shared future

for mankind’. The Football Plan also connects the revitalization and de-

velopment of football with the construction of a powerful sports nation,

the promotion of social development and the realization of the Chinese

Dream, as in its “Guiding Ideology” section football is identiﬁed as “an

emerging and green industry” and that its development represents a new

sector of economic growth, in addition to representing the Chinese Core

Socialist Values. The Football Plan can contribute to achieving these tar-

gets, both in terms of the development of the national economy – genera-

ting wealth to be redistributed – and in the aspect of promoting external

relations based on friendship, harmony, and the exchange of knowledge.

As an instrument for promoting cultural and diplomatic exchan-

ges with other nations, the Football Plan explicitly demonstrates the

Chinese authorities’ perception of the importance of football as a tool to

exert inﬂuence and attraction. For example, the Plan discusses the need

to intensify international exchange, stating that football activities are “a

fundamental part of sport diplomacy”. It also draws attention to the need

to strengthen “international cooperation and exchanges of talent in the

football industry”, adding that international football exchange channels

should be expanded, encouraging all bodies to promote various forms

of international activities and football specialists abroad for studies and

training, in addition to encouraging the participation of representatives

in international organizations. The Plan also refers to the importance of

increasing openness (‘opening up’) and advantage (‘win-win’) in coopera-

tion. Looking at the Football Plan, we realize how “exchange” and “coo-

peration” are paramount to the development of football and the Chinese

sports industry. Both are keywords in the political discourses of the Belt

and Road Initiative. After all, as have already been said, the BRI is one of

the most ambitious geopolitical and economic projects in the world, a glo-

bal integration plan, with China as the link of union and interconnectivity.

In recent years, we have seen Chinese diplomacy documents men-

tion cooperation in the ﬁeld of sport as an important part of exchanges and

cooperation, particularly in Joint Statements between the PRC and other

nations, like Joint Statements between the PRC and Brazil, Argentina,

Spain, Portugal, and Italy, for example. There are other examples of the

geopolitical dimension of football and its correlation with the Belt and

Road Initiative and the ECG. Such as the case of China Media Capital’s

investments in City Football Group, owned by Abu Dhabi United Group,

an investment group that belongs to Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin

Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan (Sheik Mansour), a member

of the Abu Dhabi royal family (CFG, which owns Manchester City and

in 2019 bought Sichuan Jiuniu FC, then in the Chinese third tier and in

2023 gained access to the CSL and changed its city and name, leaving

Chengdu for Shenzhen, becoming Shenzhen Peng City FC to play the

CSL 2024). There is also the case of stadium diplomacy and the construc-

tion of two stadiums in Pakistan, in strategic cities for both the China-

Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the BRI maritime route, Quetta

and Gwadar. In addition to several football exhibitions and tournaments

promoted under the motto of the BRI (Leite Junior & Rodrigues, 2020).

49

estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 13, n. 2, (jun. 2025), p. 34-53

7 CONCLUSION

This paper sought to bring a new analytical perspective to frame

the fundamental role played by the Chinese State in the development of

its football industry. Although the topic addressed is not new, the origi-

nality of this work lies in its theoretical framework, which reﬂects on the

relationship between the Chinese Football Plan, the NPE and ECG.

As seen in this work, in relation to the ECG, football has demons-

trated its eﬀectiveness by becoming an instrument of sports diplomacy,

building bridges and enabling the deepening of China’s relations with

several countries in the world: stadium diplomacy with Pakistan, tour-

naments under the BRI motto, in addition to cooperation and exchange

with more developed countries in football – here somewhat similar to the

Strategy for Olympic Glory. On the one hand, it is clear how the Football

Plan is a case study for understanding NPE, such as, for example, centrali-

zed decentralization, in which much of the implementation is the respon-

sibility of the private sector and provincial and municipal governments,

but always under the centrality of State power (such as the examples of

CFA interventions that aimed at greater ﬁnancial control after criticism

from government members).

There is also the role of the State as an inducer of creative des-

truction, the disruptive link capable of starting the process of creating

a new cultural and consumer habit – the mass practice of football and

the expansion and loyalty of a consumer market for this sport. And this

is a huge challenge, since a tradition is not invented overnight and it is

also necessary to consider that two or three generations of young people

trained in football academies are needed for a reasonable number of high-

-level players to emerge, capable of raising the competitive level of the

Chinese men’s team. On the other hand, however, unlike what happened

in the case of Olympic sports, where the Chinese project proved to be

extremely successful, making China an Olympic superpower in less than

40 years, the development of football in the country still faces several

obstacles. Cases of corruption and the bankruptcy of companies that own

some clubs make even more complicated something that would already

be diﬃcult if all factors collaborated for less turbulent development. The

government’s ﬁght against corruption in football, however, is exemplary.

We must wait and see what eﬀects will be like soon.

In conclusion, we believe that this work contributes both to the

discussion on public policies for Chinese football and to the debate on

socialism with Chinese characteristics, based on the analysis of two in-

tertwined concepts, the New Projection Economy and the Embedded

Chinese Globalization. Thus, this paper innovates not only by analyzing

the Chinese Football Plan under innovative conceptual aspects, but also

by adopting these concepts to football, in particular Chinese football, its

challenges, its ambitions and its mission to realize the Football Dream as

part of the realization of the Chinese Dream.

50

Emanuel Leite Junior

New projectment economy and Chinese embedded globalization: insights from the Chinese football plan

REFERENCES

ALLISON, Lincoln; MONNINGTON, Terry. Sport, Prestige and International Relations. Go-

vernment and Opposition, [S. l.], v. 37, n. 1, p. 106–134, 2002. DOI: 10.1111/1477-7053.00089.

Disponível em: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1477-7053.00089. Acesso em: 7 nov. 2016.

AMIN, Samir. The challenge of globalization. Review of International Political Economy, [S.

l.], v. 3, n. 2, p. 216–259, 1996.

CASTELLS, Manuel. The Rise of the Network Society. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. v. I

DOI: 10.1002/9781444319514.

CHANDA, Nayan. Bound Togheter, How Traders, Prechers, Adventurers, and Warriors

Shaped Globalization. London/New York: Yale University Press, 2007.

DUFFEY, Joseph. How Globalization Became U.S Public Diplomacy at the End of the Cold War.

In: SNOW, Nancy; TAYLOR, Philip M. (org.). Routledge Handbook of Public Diplomacy. 1.

ed. New York: Routledge, 2009.

DUNFORD, Michael; LIU, Weidong. Chinese perspectives on the Belt and Road Initiative.

Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, [S. l.], 2018.

GABRIELE, Alberto; JABBOUR, Elias. Socialist Economic Development in the 21st Century:

a century after the Bolshevik Revolution. London/New York: Routledge, 2022.

GABRIELE, Alberto; SCHETTINO, Francesco. Market Socialism as a Distinct Socioeconomic

Formation. New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry, [S. l.], v. 5, n.

2, p. 20–50, 2012.

GIDDENS, Anthony. Sociology. 6. ed. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009.

GIULIANOTTI, Richard; ROBERTSON, Roland. The globalization of football: A study in the

glocalization of the “serious life”. British Journal of Sociology, [S. l.], v. 55, n. 4, p. 545–568, 2004.

DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-4446.2004.00037.x.

GIULIANOTTI, Richard; ROBERTSON, Roland. Globalization & Football. 1. ed. London:

SAGE Publications, 2009.

GÜNDO AN, Ilker. Political Steering Theory in the Era of ‘Top-Level Design’: The Unexpected

Implications of Campus Football in Xi Jinping’s China. Asian Journal of Sport History & Cul-

ture, [S. l.], v. 3, n. 1, 2024. a.

GÜNDO AN, Ilker. Institutional Change in the Governance of Chinese Football: The Era of

‘Top-Level Design’ Under the Leadership of Xi Jinping. The International Journal of the His-

tory of Sport, [S. l.], v. 41, n. 4, p. 333–354, 2024. b.

HARGREAVES, John. Sport, Power and Culture: A Social and Historical Analysis of Popu-

lar Sports in Britain. [s.l.] : Polity, 1987.

HARVEY, David. The Condition of Postmodernity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell,

1989.

HARVEY, David. The New Imperialism. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003.

HARVEY, David. O enigma do capital. São Paulo: Boitempo Editorial, 2011.

HEILMANN, Sebastian. Red Swan: How Unorthodox Policy Making Facilitated China’s

Rise. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2018.

HONG, Fan; ZHOUXIANG, Lu. The Professionalisation and Commercialisation of Football

in China (1993–2013). The International Journal of the History of Sport, [S. l.], v. 30, n. 14, p.

1637–1654, 2013. DOI: 10.1080/09523367.2013.828710. Disponível em: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/

09523367.2013.828710.

HU, Angang; YAN, Yilong; WEI, Xing. China 2030. [s.l: s.n.]. v. 9783642313 DOI: 10.1007/978-

3-642-31328-8.

HUANG, Philip C. C. Development “Planning” in Present-Day China-System, Process, and Me-

chanism: Dialogues among Western and Chinese Scholars, VI. Modern China, [S. l.], v. 39, n. 6,

p. 575–579, 2013. DOI: 10.1177/0097700413498846.

JABBOUR, Elias. China Socialismo e Desenvolvimento – sete décadas depois. 1. ed. São Pau-

lo: Anita Garibaldi, 2019.

JABBOUR, Elias; DANTAS, Alexis. Ignacio Rangel na China e a “Nova Economia do Projeta-

mento”. Economia e Sociedade, [S. l.], v. 30, n. 2, p. 287–310, 2021. DOI: 10.1590/1982-3533.2021v3

0n2art01.

51

estudos internacionais • Belo Horizonte, ISSN 2317-773X, v. 13, n. 2, (jun. 2025), p. 34-53

JABBOUR, Elias; DANTAS, Alexis; VADELL, Javier. Da nova economia do projetamento à glo-

balização instituída pela China. Estudos Internacionais, [S. l.], v. 9, n. 4, p. 90–105, 2021.

JABBOUR, Elias Marco Khalil; CAPOVILLA, Cristiano. Pressupostos dialéticos acerca do socia-

lismo e projetamento na China de hoje. Economia e Sociedade, [S. l.], v. 33, n. 3 (82), 2024. DOI:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/1982-3533.2024v33n3.281848.

JABBOUR, Elias Marco Khalil; DANTAS, Alexis Toribio; ESPÍNDOLA, Carlos José; VELLOZO,

Júlio. A (Nova) Economia do Projetamento como estágio superior do socialismo chinês. Revista

Desenvolvimento e Civilização, [S. l.], v. 2, n. 2, 2021.

LAPAVITSAS, Costas. The ﬁnancialization of capitalism: “Proﬁting without producing”. City,

[S. l.], v. 17, n. 6, p. 792–805, 2013. DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2013.853865. Disponível em: http://

dx.doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2013.853865.

LEITE JUNIOR, Emanuel; RODRIGUES, Carlos. The Chinese football development plan: soft

power and national identity. HOLOS, [S. l.], v. 5, p. 114–124, 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15628/

holos.2017.5750.

LEITE JUNIOR, Emanuel; RODRIGUES, Carlos. The Chinese plan for football development:

a perspective from innovation theory. Sport, Business and Management: An International

Journal, [S. l.], v. 9, n. 1, p. 63–77, 2019. DOI: 10.1108/sbm-10-2017-0067.

LEITE JUNIOR, Emanuel; RODRIGUES, Carlos. Belt, Road and Ball: football as a Chinese soft

power and public diplomacy tool. In: LEANDRO, Francisco B. S. José; DUARTE, Paulo Afonso

B. (org.). The Belt and Road Initiative: An Old Archetype of a New Development Model. [s.l.]

: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. p. XXXV, 451. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-2564-3.

LEITE JUNIOR, Emanuel; RODRIGUES, Carlos. República Popular da China: diplomacia do

desporto e o intercâmbio com Portugal através do futebol (

). In:

MORAIS, Carlos; GUO, Zhiyan; A. H. RANGEL, Jorge; FERREIRA, António Manuel; BRASE-

TE, Maria Fernanda; RAN, Mal; COIMBRA, Rosa Lídia (org.). Diálogos Interculturais Portu-

gal-China 2, Vol. 1: Rotas e raízes de um diálogo distante. 1. ed. Macau: Instituto Internacio-

nal de Macau | Instituto Confúcio da Universidade de Aveiro, 2021. p. 375–395.

LEITE JUNIOR, Emanuel; RODRIGUES, Carlos. China, Football and Development: Socia-

lism and Soft Power. 1. ed. Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2024.

LEITE JUNIOR, Emanuel; RODRIGUES, Carlos; LEITE, Emanuel. Chinese Soft Power And

Public Diplomacy: Football As A Tool To Promote China-Brazil Relations. Boletim do Tem po

Presente, [S. l.], v. 8, n. 3, p. 194–214, 2019.

LI, Xing. Understanding China’s Economic Success: “Embeddedness” with Chinese Characte-

ristics. Asian Culture and History, [S. l.], v. 8, n. 2, 2016.

LIU, Dongfeng. The Sports Industry: the Next Big Thing in China? 2017. Disponível em:

http://theasiadialogue.com/2017/04/14/the-sports-industry-the-next-big-thing-in-china/.

LIU, Weidong; DUNFORD, Michael. Inclusive globalization: unpacking China’s Belt

and Road Initiative. Area Development and Policy, [S. l.], v. 1, n. 3, p. 323–340, 2016. DOI:

10.1080/23792949.2016.1232598. Disponível em: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23792949.2016.12325

98.

LUKÁCS, Georg. History and Class Consciousness: studies in Marxist dialectics. Cambrid-

ge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1972.

LUKÁCS, Georg. Introdução a uma Estética Marxista: sobre a categoria da particularidade.

Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira, 1978.

MARKOVITS, Andrei S.; RENSMANN, Lars. Gaming the World: how sports are reshaping

global politics and culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.

MARX, Karl; ENGELS, Friedrich. Selected Works: volume one. Moscow: Progress Publishers,

1976. a.

MARX, Karl; ENGELS, Friedrich. Selected Works: volume three. Moscow: Progress Publi-

shers, 1976. b.

MORALES RUVALCABA, Daniel; ZHANG, Zhongli. Football and national power: a theore-

tical framework applied to China and Argentina. Estudos Internacionais, [S. l.], v. 6, n. 3, p.

26–46, 2018. DOI: 10.5752/P.2317-773X.2018v6.n3.p26.

OSTRY, Jonathan D.; LOUNGANI, Prakash; FURCERI, Davide. Neoliberalism: Oversold? Fi-

nance & Development, [S. l.], v. 53, n. 2, p. 38–41, 2016. Disponível em: https://www.imf.org/

external/pubs/ft/fandd/2016/06/ostry.htm.

52

Emanuel Leite Junior

New projectment economy and Chinese embedded globalization: insights from the Chinese football plan

PENG, Qi; SKINNER, James; HOULIHAN, Barrie. An analysis of the Chinese Football Reform

of 2015 : why then and not earlier ? An analysis of the Chinese Football Reform of 2015 : why

then and not earlier ? International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, [S. l.], v. 11, n. 1, p.

1–18, 2019. DOI: 10.1080/19406940.2018.1536075.

PETRAS, James; VELTMEYER, Henry. Globalisation or imperialism? Cambridge Review of

International Aﬀairs, [S. l.], v. 14, n. 1, p. 32–48, 2000.

SANTOS, Milton. A Natureza do Espaço. 4. ed. São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São

Paulo, 2006.

STAIANO, Maria Francesca. El Neo-Humanismo Chino: un nuevo paradigma jurídico e inter-

nacional en las relaciones internacionales China-América Latina. Cadernos PROLAM/USP, [S.

l.], v. 19, n. 37, p. 214–239, 2020. DOI: 10.11606/issn.1676-6288.prolam.2020.172252.

STATE COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA. State Council’s Opinions on

Accelerating the Development of Sports Industry to Promote Sports Consumption. [s.l: s.n.].

STATE COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA. The Overall Chinese Football

Reform and Development Programme. [s.l: s.n.].

STATE COUNCIL OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA. China’s medium and long-

-term football development plan (2016-2050). [s.l: s.n.].

TAN, Tien-chin;HUANG, Hsien-Che;BAIRNER, Alan;CHEN, Yu-Wen. XiJin-Ping’sWorldCup

Dreams: From a Major Sports Country to a World Sports Power. The International Journal of

the History of Sport, [S. l.], v. 33, n. 12, p. 1449–1465, 2016. DOI: 10.1080/09523367.2016.1243103.

Disponível em: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09523367.2016.1243103.

THE STATE COUNCIL THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA. China’s Peaceful Develop-

ment. Beijing.

VADELL, Javier. China’s Bilateral and Minilateral Relationship to Latin America:

the case of China-CELAC Forum. Area Development and Policy, [S. l.], 2021. DOI:

10.1080/23792949.2021.1974907.

VADELL, Javier; JABBOUR, Elias. Formações econômicas e sociais em disputa e a globalização

com características chinesas. In: VADELL, Javier; RAMOS, Leonardo; LEITE, Alexandre (org.).

A expansão econômica e geopolítica da china no século xxi: diferentes dimensões de um

mesmo processo. 2. ed. Belo Horizonte: PUC Minas, 2023.

VADELL, Javier; SECCHES, Daniela; BURGER, Mariana. De la globalización a la interconecti-

vidad: reconﬁguración espacial en la iniciativa Belt & Road e implicaciones para el Sur Global.

Revista Transporte y Territorio, [S. l.], v. 21, p. 44–68, 2019.

XI, Jinping. The Governance of China. 1. ed. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 2014.

XI, Jinping. The Governance of China II. 1. ed. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 2017.

YU, Lin; NEWMAN, Joshua; XUE, Hanhan; PU, Haozhou. The transition game: Toward a cul-

tural economy of football in post-socialist China. International Review for the Sociology of

Sport, [S. l.], p. 101269021774011, 2017. DOI: 10.1177/1012690217740114. Disponível em: http://

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1012690217740114.

ZHAN, Xinhuan. From budding to developing: The history of china’s sport industry policy.

International Journal of the History of Sport, [S. l.], v. 33, n. 18, p. 2238–2252, 2016. DOI:

10.1080/09523367.2017.1361409. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2017.1361409.

53