Abstract: While the existing studies on China's national capacity have been basically synchronic and provided a snapshot view, this paper analyzes the implicit long cycle and visible temporal sequence of China's national capacity building from the temporal perspective. According to the typological understanding of national capacity, China's development from standing up, getting rich to getting strong is reflected in its national capacity building efforts concerning, in sequence, sovereignty capacity, economic development capacity, and comprehensive security capacity. This process of national capacity building reflects the consecutive shift of the focus of state building on politics, economy and culture, and demonstrates the “temporality” in the methodology of historical institutionalism in political science. From the temporal perspective, national capacity is not an inherent public good, but a complex project that would be delivered sequentially with its internal logical relations and serve for historical civilization developments. Therefore, the national modernization cause is to a large extent the national capacity building, which provides important implications for the construction of China's independent body of knowledge of social sciences. 

Key words: national capacity, temporality, sovereignty capacity, economic development capacity, political security

摘要： 既有的中国国家能力的研究基本上是共时性、快照点式的，本文则从时间性角度分析中国国家能力建设中暗含的长周期性和可见的时序性。按照国家能力的类型学理解，中国从站起来、富起来到强起来的发展进程，在国家能力建设上依次体现为主权能力、经济发展能力和总体安全能力。这一国家能力建设历程体现了国家建设重心在政治—经济—文化关系中的依次转移，具有历史制度主义政治学方法论中的“时间性”。在时间性视角下，国家能力并非与生俱来的公共产品，而是需要依次建设的、具有内在逻辑关系的、暗含着历史文明基因的复杂工程。由此，国家现代化建设在很大程度上就是国家能力建设，这对于建设中国自主的社会科学知识体系具有启发性。

关键词: 国家能力, 时间性, 主权能力, 经济发展能力, 政治安全