By Qin Xiaoying
The TV documentary series "The Rise of Big Powers", recently
aired on CCTV, explores the lessons drawn from the rise of major
powers such as Britain, Japan and the United States. The series has
triggered discussion on what is the best way for China to
develop.
Some foreign observers have concluded that the series serves to
defend China's "rise".
?
They think that China will embark on the road of "sword and fire"
as the old Western colonial powers did a variant of the "China
threat" theory.
In fact, industrialization, which also involves universal
application of information technology, is the way for China to join
the ranks of the world's prosperous countries.
?
But how to achieve industrialization? A host of approaches and
models lead to that goal.
?
The distinctly different geopolitical, historical and cultural
factors and times enjoyed by China determine that the country's
road to development is bound to differ from that of Western powers
or Japan.
First, China is located in a temperate zone, with two big
rivers, the Yangtze and the Yellow, flowing across its vast
territory into the sea. In addition, the country abounds in
resources and has four distinctly defined seasons. All this
facilitates farming.
As a result, a sense of self-sufficiency and looking inward
became very important components in the character of the Chinese
nation.
Economically, its survival and strength came largely from
"internal circulation," a salient feature of the self-sufficient
economy.
All these factors generally dictated that the Chinese nation did
not desire territorial expansion.
As a matter of fact, historically, most of China's wars against
alien forces were triggered by invading nomadic tribes, such as the
Monguls, who were bent on plundering or conquering China.
All conquests, as Karl Marx once observed, have but three
outcomes. The conquerors destroy the culture of the conquered. They
accept elements of the local culture. Or they are assimilated by
the local culture.
In fact, all the nomadic conquerors wound up in the third
category. Why?
First, because the Chinese nation, with its unique
inward-looking mode of survival, is super stable by nature.
Second, traditional Chinese culture contributed to the country's
lack of expansionist ambitions. The political ideas of
Confucianism, for example, held that the relationship between
Chinese civilization and the outside world was between the
civilized and the barbarian.
Chinese civilization was to radiate out in all directions to
influence all others, instead of the equal relations between
sovereign states. As a result, there existed no relationship of
conqueror and conquered in the minds of the ancient Chinese
rulers.
The millennia-old system of surrounding vassal states' paying
tribute to the rulers of the "Central Kingdom" was just the
institutional expression of the theory of Chinese civilization
being at the center.
It is true that this idea became fossilized, leading to China's
total seclusion, with the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) declining
sharply and Western powers rising rapidly in the 19th century.
However, historically these ideas helped steer the country clear
of launching expansionist wars.
In addition, no unified State religion in the real sense of the
word occurred in Chinese history. Pantheist, polytheist and atheist
beliefs have coexisted throughout Chinese history.
As a result, China has never been the breeding ground for the
religious zeal that drove Westerners to launch foreign wars in an
attempt to eliminate heresy.
Third, great changes have taken place in our times, which
determine that China will take a different road to development than
the roads taken by Western powers.
China, in the course of its development, has run into problems
such as underdevelopment of the market, shortages of resources and
energy, lack of capital, environmental pollution, insufficient
employment, low-level urbanization and weak scientific and
technological creativity.
If China had been presented with these problems before the 20th
century, the country might have followed in the rut of old colonial
powers, seeking raw materials, cheap labor and investment venues
overseas with the use of force.
Germany and Japan, latecomers in the world's political and
economic arenas, went to war because they wanted to redivide the
spheres of influence. They wanted to snatch a bigger share of raw
material bases, investment venues and cheap labor force.
Everything, however, has changed with the arrival of the
information age, particularly since the world entered the 21st
century. The world market has become unified since the end of the
Cold War two opposing blocks no longer confront each other.
Economic activities and business transactions are conducted largely
through transnational corporations.
The trend of economic globalization is irreversible. World
economic and monetary organizations are increasingly blurring
national boundaries for economic activities.
These profound changes taking place in the world's economic
arena clear away the stumbling blocks to China's revival. Moreover,
the changes cut off the option for such emerging big countries as
China, India, Brazil and South Africa to follow the old track of
Western powers' rise to power.
In fact, the Chinese government has time and again demonstrated
to the world its determination to take the road of peaceful
development and announced a foreign policy geared to helping bring
about world harmony.
The author is a researcher with the China Foundation for
International and Strategic Studies.
(China Daily January 10, 2007)
