China was humiliated by the western super power for more than a century and its GDP fell from a third to a twentieth of the world total from 1840 to 1950. The People’s Republic of China was established in 1949 and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has taken control of the economy under the influential leader Mao Zedong. The country enjoyed tremendous economic growth in this period but the structural and institutional inefficiency undermined the true potential and inequality on the rise in a communist state. The deaths of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in 1976 were followed by brief and bloodless power struggle that resulted, by 1978, in the ascension to power of Deng Xiaoping.
The present day China we are dealing with is the ultimate dream of Deng Xiaoping’s “second revolution”. Since the economic reform, known as ‘open door’ policy, started in 1979 the country has undergone radical economic transformations and gradually become ‘manufacturer of the world’. Now, China has entered the Xi Jinping’s “third revolution” which is distinct from the earlier revolution as it has purposed: the dramatic centralization of authority under his personal leadership; the intensified penetration of society by the state; the creation of a virtual wall of regulations and restrictions that more tightly controls the flows of ideas, culture and capital into and out of the country; and the significant projection of Chinese power.
The sleeping Panda has once again waked up to shake the world. China is already the largest economy in terms of GDP Purchasing Power Parity according to CIA fact book data. The country with a population of 1.3 billion is looking forward to change the world order within the next 30 years when she would celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of People's Republic of China in 2049. According to Michael Pillsbury, a China expert argued that it has started the hundred year marathon in 1949 to take over the Western hegemony. China has reemerged not only as an economic super power but also a global political change maker.
China has undertaken a great number of economic and geopolitical initiatives in the recent past. One of those initiatives is to revive the old silk route, once a major trading route connecting east to the west, China has developed the One Belt One Road (commonly known as BRI) initiative to demonstrate its econo-geo-political power and impose threat to the western hegemon. China has been investing heavily in key areas such as utilities, telecommunications, port construction and transportation in Asia and Africa. In line with that, China has already established Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank as an alternative to World Bank. The bank currently has 74 members as well as 26 prospective members around the world. The emergence of China as a global economic power is reconfirmed when Chinese RMB has been included in SDR basket in addition to the previously included four currencies – the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen, and the British pound.
China is not far away from exercising its military power across the continents. China has the capability to produce from pin to plane to satellite and become the manufacturing hub of the world. China has already established military base in Djibouti along with unofficial military bases in Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Tajikistan. This growing military presence across the continent is not only to show the military power but also to protect the huge Chinese investment going into the region.
On the geo-political front, China has advanced significantly in the recent past. The country has been maintaining strong geo-political ties with Russia, Pakistan, Iran and many African and Asian countries. China has been trying to develop regional consensus in South-China sea conflict. Russia and China led the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) or ‘Shanghai Pact’ which is a Eurasian political, economic and security alliance. We are going to see a gradual transition from ‘Washington consensus’ to ‘Beijing consensus’. ‘Beijing consensus’ - the Chinese approach to international politics, no interference in domestic affairs, no military interventions, no trade embargoes, provides the developing world with a real alternative of building relations with other countries.
Traditionally Chinese are conservative with strong ‘Asian values’ and have long cultural and historical lineage. Like previous and current global power, the British and the U.S., China has started spreading its unique language and cultural diversity across the world through Confucius Institute. However, the organization has been highly criticized because of rising Chinese influences in the countries in which it operates.
Chinese business corporations, China Mobile, Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei, Lenovo and ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) are becoming part of the global business landscape. The U.S. has already realised the growing dominance of Chinese manufacturer in USA and across the globe and launched a trade war which could destabilize the world economy. It is evident that China is gradually opening up and starts to show its economic, political, and cultural superiority over the U.S., the global hegemon. According to one estimate, by 2030, China will represent 23 percent of the world economy, compared with less than 5 percent in 1978. If China rises to its zenith, it will be the first country with unprecedented development based on an indigenous, not Western-type, economic model.
Dr. Md. Akther Uddin
