Understanding the rise of China
Dr Yang Ganfu
In his global bestseller ‘When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World’, Dr Martin Jacques, a senior fellow at Cambridge University, argues: “We can't understand the rise of China using Western concepts".
According to him, China is on track to become the world's largest economy. (By 2050, India will also rival the US.)
This is a unique situation as we have not, for 200 years, had a developing nation as the world's dominant country. Moreover, Westerners assume that modernisation means Westernisation - but China is not like the West and will not become like the West. This possibly explains why the West fails to deliver a fair view of China’s rise.
In many Westerners’ eyes, China’s economic growth and its corresponding cooperation with and funding for other nations are just ‘neo-colonialism’, ‘Chinese threat’ or a ‘debt trap’.
While the West fragmented at the end of the Roman Empire, and remains fragmented today, China has remained a single civilisation with its values of ancestor worship, family, state, Guanxi, Confucian culture and so on.
Greatest power
The Chinese are fundamentally shaped by their civilisation. China has been the greatest power for nearly 3 000 years. Gavin Menzies, the author of bestseller ‘1421: The Year China Discovered America’, gives an enthralling account with persuasive evidence that China had already made herself a leading power in many aspects including circumnavigation and astronomy by 1421.
In his other masterpiece ‘1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance’, Menzies states that China’s influence has sparked the Renaissance. The course of Western civilisation was changed forever.
Admittedly, China’s long history as a country and culture has a profound influence on the character of the Chinese, paving the way for today’s rapid development.
In a similar vein, well-known academic Dr Greg Mills claims that China’s cultural dimension, combining an ancient civilisation with Confucian values, has distinguished its economic growth path from others’.
New avenues for development
I opine that culture opens new avenues for development. Culture is at the vanguard of social and economic development in China. China’s cultural identity has held the country together. Chinese cultural values of collectivism, polychromous approach to time, world views, culture of high-power distance, etc are important engines to drive its economic and social development, even when the Western world was suffering from financial crisis as in 2008.
The political value in China is unity and solidarity. To the Chinese government, unity and political stability are always the first items on their agenda. As a culture, the Chinese value, more than any other nation, unity, stability, solidarity and integrity. Building stable political institutions and environments makes it possible for China to concentrate on its social-economic and political developments.
The Chinese state is the embodiment of Chinese civilisation. In Western democracies, the state and power are constructed differently - the Western state's power is limited and challenged.
In China, the state has legitimacy and authority as a member of the family. In the Chinese psyche, a family will stop existing without the state (big family). The state has always played a major role in building infrastructure - the Great Wall in the Qin Dynasty, the Grand Canal built in the 14th century and, today, the Three Gorges Dam, among others.
The power of culture
No other country has more effectively and successfully unleashed the power of culture in its economic and social development like China has. No governments have more power to call for efficient collective mobilisations to face their challenges and save their people out of poverty as China has done, as attested by its rapid and effective control of Covid-19 pandemic. No people can sacrifice and give up their individuals’ interests for the sake of the national interests as the Chinese do. China’s culture-endowed social cohesion is the fundamental guarantee of development. The media, inclusive of social media, in China advocates social unity, solidarity, harmony and inclusion, thus creating a culture of civilisation, contribution and positive energy.
Jacques further points out that the West thinks of itself as cosmopolitan. But in reality, the West is parochial. Developing countries have been forced to learn about the West and know the West, whereas the West, especially Europe, is ignorant of the rest of the world.
Drawing a conclusion, Jacques claims the rise of developing countries, following 200 years of world leadership by a small fraction of the West, represents a major democratisation of world power, for which we should all be happy. The West should address and accommodate different cultures and understand the rise of China psychologically, politically and ideologically.
In his global bestseller ‘When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World’, Dr Martin Jacques, a senior fellow at Cambridge University, argues: “We can't understand the rise of China using Western concepts".
According to him, China is on track to become the world's largest economy. (By 2050, India will also rival the US.)
This is a unique situation as we have not, for 200 years, had a developing nation as the world's dominant country. Moreover, Westerners assume that modernisation means Westernisation - but China is not like the West and will not become like the West. This possibly explains why the West fails to deliver a fair view of China’s rise.
In many Westerners’ eyes, China’s economic growth and its corresponding cooperation with and funding for other nations are just ‘neo-colonialism’, ‘Chinese threat’ or a ‘debt trap’.
While the West fragmented at the end of the Roman Empire, and remains fragmented today, China has remained a single civilisation with its values of ancestor worship, family, state, Guanxi, Confucian culture and so on.
Greatest power
The Chinese are fundamentally shaped by their civilisation. China has been the greatest power for nearly 3 000 years. Gavin Menzies, the author of bestseller ‘1421: The Year China Discovered America’, gives an enthralling account with persuasive evidence that China had already made herself a leading power in many aspects including circumnavigation and astronomy by 1421.
In his other masterpiece ‘1434: The Year a Magnificent Chinese Fleet Sailed to Italy and Ignited the Renaissance’, Menzies states that China’s influence has sparked the Renaissance. The course of Western civilisation was changed forever.
Admittedly, China’s long history as a country and culture has a profound influence on the character of the Chinese, paving the way for today’s rapid development.
In a similar vein, well-known academic Dr Greg Mills claims that China’s cultural dimension, combining an ancient civilisation with Confucian values, has distinguished its economic growth path from others’.
New avenues for development
I opine that culture opens new avenues for development. Culture is at the vanguard of social and economic development in China. China’s cultural identity has held the country together. Chinese cultural values of collectivism, polychromous approach to time, world views, culture of high-power distance, etc are important engines to drive its economic and social development, even when the Western world was suffering from financial crisis as in 2008.
The political value in China is unity and solidarity. To the Chinese government, unity and political stability are always the first items on their agenda. As a culture, the Chinese value, more than any other nation, unity, stability, solidarity and integrity. Building stable political institutions and environments makes it possible for China to concentrate on its social-economic and political developments.
The Chinese state is the embodiment of Chinese civilisation. In Western democracies, the state and power are constructed differently - the Western state's power is limited and challenged.
In China, the state has legitimacy and authority as a member of the family. In the Chinese psyche, a family will stop existing without the state (big family). The state has always played a major role in building infrastructure - the Great Wall in the Qin Dynasty, the Grand Canal built in the 14th century and, today, the Three Gorges Dam, among others.
The power of culture
No other country has more effectively and successfully unleashed the power of culture in its economic and social development like China has. No governments have more power to call for efficient collective mobilisations to face their challenges and save their people out of poverty as China has done, as attested by its rapid and effective control of Covid-19 pandemic. No people can sacrifice and give up their individuals’ interests for the sake of the national interests as the Chinese do. China’s culture-endowed social cohesion is the fundamental guarantee of development. The media, inclusive of social media, in China advocates social unity, solidarity, harmony and inclusion, thus creating a culture of civilisation, contribution and positive energy.
Jacques further points out that the West thinks of itself as cosmopolitan. But in reality, the West is parochial. Developing countries have been forced to learn about the West and know the West, whereas the West, especially Europe, is ignorant of the rest of the world.
Drawing a conclusion, Jacques claims the rise of developing countries, following 200 years of world leadership by a small fraction of the West, represents a major democratisation of world power, for which we should all be happy. The West should address and accommodate different cultures and understand the rise of China psychologically, politically and ideologically.
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