How China Seeks to Reclaim its Former Glory

China Before the Industrial Revolution

If you asked a person where the centre of power and attention was during the 20th century, most would probably say Europe and North America. The millennia before the industrial revolution had a lot happening in Europe. The renaissance happening in the end of the 14th century, colonisation of the Americas during the 15th, the reformation at the start of the 16th, the enlightenment at the end of the 18th, the industrial revolution throughout the eighteenth century. Europe went from religious domination to rapid industrialisation, innovation of new technology and philosophies, setting itself up for world domination in a few hundred years.

Looking back on this period of history, some have to ask: Why did Europe innovate and expand so much, while China’s dynasty sat idly by? One of the major factors influencing this was resources, which dictated whether a country could thrive and grow. Resources gave a country a massive advantage over others. Europe, being a rather small continent, had less resources than its Asian counterparts. Europe was also crowded in terms of countries. Asia on the other hand, had much more land to contend with, and naturally, had more resources. This made Asia the centre of power before the industrial revolution. Many Europeans coveted Asian trade goods, from silk, to spices, to tea.

These goods were the reasons why Europeans innovated and industrialised -- there was a need to compensate for a comparative lack of goods relative to Asia. During the 1400s, the majority of trade routes passed through Constantinople. Nestled between Asia and Europe, merchants made themselves rich through trade. However, after 1453, Constantinople was annexed by the Ottoman Empire, a Muslim nation, in contrast to much of European Christianity. What’s more was, with the Ottoman Empire sitting between Asia and Europe, it could extract exorbitant tariffs, making trade harder. Therefore, Europeans innovated further to overcome this problem. They built up their fleets, and circumnavigated around the Ottoman Empire. Christopher Columbus also, of course, sailed westward to find new trade routes with India and China, establishing colonies in America. When the Portugese reached the Cape of Good Hope -- the southern tip of Africa -- the gateway with Asia lay wide open. It was only then when the centre of power shifted from China and Asia to Europe and America. Before the industrial revolution, China could be viewed as a great power, having exerted her power all across the world.

百年國恥 - The Century of Humiliation

When the industrial revolution was well under way, the Europeans thought, “Why should we be under the Asians when we are more powerful and stronger than them? Why can’t we just get our way by conquering them?” And by then, it was too late. China, with its much weaker army as the result of the lack of incentive to industrialize -- already having everything they needed within their borders --, was easily beaten by Europeans. Europeans started to carve up land inside China, with the Russians in the North, the British and French in the south, and even the industrialized Japan in Manchuria and Korea. The British East India Company ran the largest drug traffic into China, importing vast amounts of illegal opium into the Middle Kingdom. The Japanese invaded the Qing Empire and subjugated her to humiliating terms - the very country that China once called tributary. The Eight-Nation alliance led by Western powers coerced China to comply with their trade regulations, forcing their doors of trade wide open for Western exploitation. The alliance also occupied Beijing, burning, looting and pillaging the imperial palaces and temples. The loss of cultural heritage by this act of atrocity still affects us to this day. Thousands of years of Chinese culture and Chinese tradition - gone with a night of fire. By then, the centre of power was long gone from China, it was the Americans and the Europeans that mandated the world’s fate. This century of humiliation still lingers in the minds of many party officials, who see it as the lesson taught to China that change must be enacted, and that dwelling on out-dated and past policies only weakens the nation.

The Resurging China

China in the 2000s is seen as a rapidly growing country, expanding exponentially economically. Many see China as a global power, but it is still a far cry from the position it held 500 years ago. The United States of America currently has the title of the sole superpower of Earth, but China seeks to challenge that. From the Belt and Road initiative, to the current coronavirus pandemic, China is seeking to expand its influence over the globe through soft power. A more specific example would be the military bases -- China has long condemned the US for having military bases all over the road, saying China would never resort to such things. However, China’s past record says otherwise. The Belt and Road initiative has allowed China to use a tactic called “Debt trap diplomacy”. This tactic, which says in its name, is for providing massive loans and financial aid to underdeveloped countries such as certain African countries, or Pakistan, or other countries who we consider third world, and when these countries fail to repay the loans, China can demand access to ports, expanding China’s influence. One example is Djibouti, an East African country lying on the coast of the Horn of Africa - a vital trade route between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. China lent vast amounts of money to Djibouti to build their infrastructure, but this led to Djibouti being massively in debt to China - experts estimate this tiny country owes China a whopping 1.2 billion dollars. An insignificant amount to the world’s second largest economy, but astronomical to a regional minor. When Djibouti was unable to pay off the loan, they gave China a port to compensate. That port is now served as a military base for China to bolster its presence in the world. So much for opposing military bases. Aside from the Belt and Road initiative, China is also utilizing this coronavirus pandemic to broaden its soft power. As the epicentre shifts from China in Asia to Europe, many countries are in desperate need of medical supplies, as they were not prepared for such a large epidemic. Serbia, as an illustration, is accepting massive amounts of medical supplies from China. As much as it seems like a cover up for the failure of China in handling this pandemic, China seeks to pry something good out of this disaster to the world. From masks to gloves to ventilators, they all have the mark of China on it. China, by giving resources to Europeans, just like what they did 500 years ago, just in a different way, is a symbol of how China is once again trying to become the global superpower again.

Many predict the coming century would mark a confrontation between the US and China, comparing it to the Cold War. However this contest of who would come out on top as the global leader would be much different from the one 30 years prior. The Soviet Union never quite stood the chance against the liberal market of the US in terms of the economy, the GDP and the financial capability. China, on the other hand, is a strong communist state with mixed capitalist policies able to contend with the US. Ronald Reagen and Margaret Thatcher’s belief of neo-liberalism and capitalist freedom eventually winning out over government guided markets seems to have been wrong. Will China’s coalition of states using a system of more government control in the market win this confrontation, or will the free world led by the US succeed in keeping the crown of “leader of the world”?