The current global situation is increasingly described as the onset of “post-globalization”. The recent growth of de-globalizing trends urges researchers to look for new approaches in studies of global processes. The article argues that promising avenue in this field is the sociological multiple modernities perspective. While the original version of this perspective, worked out by Shmuel Eisenstadt, highlights the civilizational foundations of various types of modern society, other approaches focus on alternative, entangled and successive modernities. At the same time, one can speak of various globalizing trends connected with different versions of modernity. Thus, the Soviet model of modernity has been described as an alternative mode of globalization which competed with the liberal western mode but ultimately failed. It has been shown that the global dynamics of Soviet modernity was an important part of 20^th century globalization processes. Contemporary China arguably represents a more successful alternative mode of globalization. According to Johann Arnason, social transformations in China represent a combination of breaks with tradition, underlying continuities and revivals of specific legacies. The article argues that drawing on the theories of multiple modernities allows us to discuss the Chinese case with due attention to its historical sources and current interpretations of China’s previous experience with modernity.