Book excerpt: This book proposes a new concept of “International Leadership with Chinese Characteristics” (ILCC) to interpret China’s role in global governance. The author illustrates how the concept of ILCC is built on the basis of the discussion of Chinese political culture and Chinese worldview of international relations and develops a four-step interpretive process as a guidance for conducting the empirical analysis of the ILCC. The book also shows how Chinese elites conceptually construct and practically implement the ILCC in four case studies – G20, BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)