The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is currently in the throes of redefining itself as not just China’s ruling party, but also as the dominant political force of global China. Following the path of Chinese globalization, this project overlaps with – but is different from – China’s much maligned strategy of influencing and interfering in the society and politics of other countries. However, the principal aim of the CCP’s global extension is not to meddle in the affairs of other countries, but rather to tie Chinese people, goods, money, business and institutions that have ventured abroad back into the strategy and domestic system of China and the CCP. The article shows that China’s emerging superpower is informed both by China’s unique pattern of globalization and the CCP’s own understanding of the nature, aims and modalities of its rule, which can only partially be compared to those of earlier superpowers.