ABSTRACT This article explores how Chinese universities navigate global and national spaces in their pursuit of global reputation, revealing inherent paradoxes within both. Drawing on the glonacal agency heuristic, the study highlights universities' agentic imaginaries in guiding their practices and navigating material spaces. The findings show that the fluid global space facilitates academic mobility and collaboration while exposing macro‐structural challenges such as ideological misalignments, systemic inequalities and geopolitical tensions. Within the national space, the Chinese government provides policy guidance and financial support yet restricts international engagement and enforces a rigid evaluation system. By negotiating between these spaces, Chinese universities demonstrate critical self‐reflection and cultivate an agentic imaginary characterised by reciprocity, fluidity and openness. They actively seek to challenge global inequalities and initiate new relational activities. The study offers actionable insights for non‐Western universities seeking to enhance global reputation and deepens theoretical understanding of how institutions exercise agency across global‐national contexts.
Yang et al. (2026) studied this question.