Shanghai has proved to be a happy hunting ground for the world number one in recent years, edging Andy Murray and Juan Martin del Potro in the 2012 and 2013 finals respectively.
While Djokovic has four titles to his name this year, the Serbian bowed out of the last two ATP Masters 1000 events at the round of 16 before reaching the semi-finals of the US Open.
The 27-year-old moved into the last four of the China Open on Friday with a straight-sets win over Grigor Dimitrov, setting up a meeting with Andy Murray.
Murray proved too strong for US Open champion Marin Cilic, while Rafael Nadal suffered a surprise defeat to world number 56 Martin Klizan.
Big names such as Nadal and Murray are likely to threaten the latter stages in Shanghai, but the likes of Dimitrov, Cilic and Milos Raonic will also hope to impress ahead of the ATP World Tour finals in London next month.
Dimitrov, Raonic, Kei Nishikori and Ernests Gulbis have all broken into the top 10 for the first time this season and will all feature in Shanghai.
Djokovic feels these sorts of players form part of a new school who threaten to challenge the traditional elite, but he remains eager to lead the way in the rankings.
"I'll make sure that they don't come [up the rankings] any time soon," he told the ATP World Tour website.
"Obviously you already have these three, four players that are showing great talent, great skills, ability to play with the best and win against the best on the big courts, like Raonic, Nishikori and Dimitrov, and Cilic just recently won the US Open.
"I think it's logical to expect that in the sport, over time after so many years of dominance of three, four players, there are some others who are coming up and challenging.
"But on the other hand it's still not happening that they are the ones who are winning Grand Slams and being top three, four in the world."