Some of the underpinning principles of “liberal” international order are foundationally different from the underpinning principles of liberal (domestic) order. Most prominently, no international order can be objectively legitimate because unlike a liberal domestic order that is ideally based on subjects’ “voluntary submission” to an order, an international order, even a “liberal” one, cannot be based on subjects’ voluntary submission to an order. Yet, perhaps ironically, it is precisely because of the not-so-genuine liberal nature of the “liberal” international order that makes some reshaping the international order via intra-system bargaining between the rising powers and the reigning hegemon more feasible than most liberals would like to admit. Tang will explore the possible role of China as an illiberal rising power in the (re-)shaping of the “liberal” international order, illustrating with the case of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) from its possible origin in the failure of intra-system reform of IMF to its eventual quasi-intra-system formation.