There is a line from the presidential debate that I cannot seem to get over. It concerns the fear of China as a world’s superpower. It has popped up in the past four or so years as a warning, a bogey-man to keep us fearful of our own declining power. The main reason is due to how much debt we, as the United States, owe to the Chinese government. Even so, I had to ask myself, is this fear rational? The United States has been in debt to another government for the large majority of its short existence. Our country was born on the loan from the French, Spanish and Dutch governments and we have owed money to some foreign power up until present day. So why are we so afraid of China? The talk seems to circle around the fact that China is groomed to become a world superpower.
In many American’s minds, this means that we are in danger of become a colony of the Emperor. There are constantly throw away comments made by hateful individuals claiming we “might as well start learning Mandarin.â€Â Up until recently, I couldn’t figure out my innate dislike for these arguments besides the fact that they are grossly bigoted and have never been backed with any sort of silly thing such as proof. Then Martin Jacques, a world economist helped shed some light on the thing nagging my side. China has never been like European powers. Their history and their present is dictated by a separate set of governing rules. To attach our European /American mindset, which is racked with colonialism and take-over to it, would be incorrect. Social workers are constantly taught cultural competence as a mandatory part of practice. We are not employing that here.
The first thing we should do then is to look at the history and cultural dynamic of the Chinese system to look towards what their goals are. Despite many times in history when China was at the height of the civilized world, they have never taken opportunity to conquer their numerous neighbors, but instead allowed their neighbors to look to them for example.  Yes, China holds our nation’s debt, and will eclipse us shortly as an economic superpower. But unlike what our history shows, China’s doesn’t support an aggressive military take-over. As Mr. Jacques states, “We should not expect China to behave in the manner of the US. It will be very different. And nor should we assume that it will necessarily be worse.â€Â The western world is usually more concerned with the immediate; we are an immediate-gratification society who can only understand short-term implications for actions. China is richly intertwined with their history, and a sense to have their actions remain stable for generations to come. As the article quotes, Zhou En Lai was asked in 1972 what he made of the French Revolution, Zhou En Lai replied, “It’s too early to know.â€
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Courtney,
The cultural and traditional elements are not mentioned here. Asians have a lot of history, alot of traditions that are part of who the country is. Education is highly valued along with respect for elders. Excellence and doing your best in life is important.
I do think China will only continue to grow as a country-they are more cohesive than the U.S. which is considered the ‘melting pot’ when it comes to the different ethnic and cultural groups that reside there. Perhaps if the U.S. business world followed their example in doing well at certain things and kept manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and stopped outsourcing, economically they might be better off (I live in Canada).
The Westernized world needs to learn to focus on long term vs. instant gratification. Less materialism and more focus on family, friends, community and relaxation-lower the stress levels!
An excellent post.
How does China treat those nations it overpowers? Ask Tibet.
China of the past is not the China of the modern era, anymore than the US of 1776 is like the US of today.
I would like to start this comment by saying that I agree whole-heartedly with Courtney when she says that the visceral response to the concept of the “Chinese overlord†is over-blown. The fact that China is doing well as an economic power isn’t something that we should be fearful about, I don’t think, as it presupposes that we’ll immediately lose our status on the world stage and suddenly stop being relevant. I would like to point out that Britain has done quite well for itself even after losing its status as “world power,†all things considered. And we’re a bit bigger then Britain is.
The fact of the matter is, how well do we actually know China is doing? It isn’t like we have reliable sources of information coming out of that country. The status of human rights, the state of their environment, and the construction of their infrastructure are all things that we take on faith because of the limited evidence we’ve been able to pull from their country through third-party channels. The Chinese government has no reason to feed us information which makes them look weak, and no qualms about lying about how well their doing. They don’t live in a democracy; they don’t have to allow transparency in what they do.
The novel Massive Retaliation (available at amazon.com – ASIN B00BLGXO2I) investigates China’s development of a new military technology that could effectively eclipse America’s super power status in the year 2020. It lays out a possible scenario of confrontation between the two countries. The website for the book ( http://www.massive-retaliation.com ) on its “In The News” page provides excerpts from journals around the world that support the premise of the book. No one can predict the future but when the People’s Republic of China is graduating 500,000 engineers each year and the United States is graduating 50,000, the sheer number of people that can be applied to solving technical problems increases the likelihood that unique technical advantages will result. This would be especially true, in the Chinese communist system, where technical innovations are shared between businesses and even with the military who operate many of the businesses, instead of being used for a competitive advantage.
I want to to thank you for this excellent read!!
I absolutely loved every little bit of it.
I have you book marked to look at new stuff you post…
Glad you enjoyed the read. I would love to include your comments in the review section of the book’s website. I have started a new novel called “Manifest Destiny” with many of the same characters from my novel “Massive Retaliation”. This time it picks up what happens in 2024 when the Chinese purchase not only the bulk of Canadian oil production (which currently goes to the United States) but also their nickel production in Sudbury, Ontario and Thompson, Manitoba. The Chinese also open a tanker port in British Columbia and complete a pipeline to it from the Alberta, Oil fields. It requires a Chinese security force. If that is not enough, a crisis with Canada erupts over access to fresh water as the South West USA reaches a crisis point as their aquifers run dry. I should complete the book by the Spring. I think you will be surprised by the book’s ending.