Author: Elizabeth C Economy
In 2010, an
incident occurred between the Chinese and Japanese. A Chinese ship along with
the captain, Zan Qishiong, was detained by Japanese authorities because they
were near uninhabited islands in the South China Sea. Japan had insisted that the
Chinese man would be prosecuted. The Chinese official government threated Japan
that they will terminate the supply of rare earth minerals that would have an
impact on the demise of the industrial technology in Japan.[1]
Some analysts interpreted the
Chinese government provocative reaction to Japan as a sign of rising Chinese
aggressiveness and arrogance that came with its growing military and economic
capability.[2]
The incident was a warning that the Chinese began to show strength and began to
threaten other countries due to the economic and military progress. China began
proclaiming himself to be an important player in the international world.
The
article The Game Changer: Coping with China’s Foreign Policy Evolution that was written by Elizabeth C. Economy explained that
China began to evolve. As a country with
second largest economic power, China began
to change their passive approach to be more
active. This article
provides empirical evidence that China has certainly risen up and
become a major global economic power: in
only three decades,
it has transformed its economy into the world's second largest exporter,
and largest provider
of loans to
the developing world.
The
author discusses the idea of revolution, either from
within and outside. The revolution
was started from inside through the vision of Chinese leader who wanted to transform the economy.
Now, China wants to export the idea of revolution to the outside world. In order to support the rise of China in a soft way, China
did a few strategies.
Until 2011, Beijing spent was about five billion
euros for the development
of foreign media. Most of the
money was spent for English-language
television stations under the
Xinhua News Agency, "Global Times" which was launched in April 2010.
While most
scholars focused to see Beijing’s weak “attractiveness” in areas such as human
rights and their authoritarian political system, the author of this article observes
the inside perspective about how Beijing’s management of soft power created a
proactive agenda setting ability that allows it to achieve much more important
goals at the strategic level. This article also gives recommendations on the important role that can be taken by
the United States (U.S.). However, I noted several
interesting things to discuss.
First,
this article does
not offer a new perspective about
China. Predictions about the rise of China have
been widely voiced by many political
scientists. Samuel Huntington in his book The
Clash of Civilization also predicted the future
conflict that was marked by
the rise of China. Although Huntington's book is considered to be
inadequate to explain the current reality, it has been predicted that
China will be a
major force that
will ally with Russia and Islamic countries, and then face off with the U.S.[3]
Second, this article
states that the architect of China's economic progress is Deng Xiaoping
in the late 1970s. The desire to be a
superpower country rests on this nation's great history as
an empire that was ruled for over 5000 years.
This pride can
be the basis of nationalism
and a key element
of Chinese people in order
to regain superpower status.
As noted by Zhang
(2012), China's rise is the result of a zhenxing zhonghua philosophy that was started Sun Yat Sen, the founding father of modern China. The founder of
modern China saw
China's economy was too weak to support the superpower
status. That's why China's economy must be built strong to restore the glory.[4]
Third, this article does not provide a
detailed mapping of the hard
power and soft power of China. In fact,
the approach of hard power and soft power has
become a benchmark for the
Chinese government to synergize
economic growth and
military power. As widely known, the concept of soft power, a non-coercive
agenda-setting ability, was originally coined and popularized by Joseph Nye
(2005). In recent years, soft power has drawn increasing attention among
academics. The term also appears with higher frequency in the speeches of more
and more global political leaders who uniformly call for their countries to
make greater efforts to cultivate and enhance their soft power.[5]
It is interesting
to see how Beijing maintains soft power and hard power. China's hard-power assets have
become significantly stronger, as evidenced by its expanded economy and foreign
currency reserves, impressive space programs, and rapidly modernizing weapon
systems. These developments have engendered widespread anxieties about China's
true intentions and willingness to continue with past policies. In particular,
a series of events involving China since 2009 have given rise to wide
speculation that Beijing is discarding its past "smile diplomacy" and
is becoming increasingly aggressive.[6]
The soft power will
improve our understanding of China’s development, its future intentions, and
possible changes in Chinese foreign policy that may impact the lives of
billions of people, inside and outside China.
Fourth, this article
only sees positive
aspects, without noticing several
negative aspects that can be generated by China. South Asia and
Southeast Asia in
general assume that China has territorial
ambitions. Some African
countries also began
to doubt the Chinese government's
agenda.
I noted several disputes concerning China including: (1)
disputes in the
South China Sea. China has a
conflict with almost all countries of
Southeast Asia that are related to claims over the Spratly and Paracel Islands.
While the negotiations have not reached common ground, China
has put its military in the region. (2) The
territorial conflict between China
and India plus Southeast Asian countries.
The conflict was
triggered when China government released a map which includes Vietnam,
the Philippines, and India. (3) China-Japan dispute. In 2010,
Chinese fishing vessels entered Japanese waters. When Japan arrested
some of the fisherman, China’s reaction threatened
to embargo Japan. (4) Conflict with Myanmar. The conflict arose when the leader of Myanmar's military junta tried to break away from dependence on
China. (5) Potential
conflicts with some
African countries. When China
approached Africa, all African countries welcomed China. Now, many Africans begin to complain. The projects were built by Chinese companies,
supervised by a Chinese
company, assessed by a Chinese company, and audited
by a Chinese company
without benefit to any African countries.
With various political developments that occurred,
some developing countries began to turn to the
west, including the United States.
Western countries could be a force to
counterbalance China's dominance,
while maintaining the stability of
the region. Lastly, I agree with the
conclusion of the authors that the United States (U.S.)
must continue to
assert its own ideals
and strategic priorities
and continue to work
closely with other like-minded nations.
This initiative has
been pursued by several Southeast Asian
countries who invited the United States to establish military bases on its territory. Although in the future this
strategy could be a problem,
this option is considered appropriate for this moment.
[1] For detail explanation,
see Paul Krugman’s article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/opinion/18krugman.html
[2] Blumentghal, D (2011) “Riding
a tiger: China’s resurging foreign policy aggression.” Foreign Policy,
April 15, at http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com
[3] Huntington, S (1996) The Clash of Civilizations
and the Remaking of World Order. New York, Simon & Schuster.
[4] Zhang, Wanfa (2012) Has
Beijing Started to bare Its Teeth? China’s Tapping of Soft Power Revisited. In Asia
Perspective 36, 615-639
[5] Nye, Joseph (2005) “The
Rise of China’s Soft Power.” Wall Street Journal, Dec 29
[6] Lee, john (2010) “The End
of Smile Diplomacy?” National Interest, September 23, at http://nationalinterest.org
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