Portrait of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung.
China rising at 60
In China, 60 years is known as a Jiazi.
It is considered a special period created by the interaction of the Twelve Animals commonly called the Chinese Zodiac with the Five Elements (Earth, Fire, Water, Wood and Metal) and the Two Aspects (Yin and Yang).
1st October 2009 also marks 60 years since Chairman Mao Tse-Tung declared the foundation of the People’s Republic of China. Tim Dunne, Professor of International Relations at the University of Exeter, recently went to Jilin University in Northeastern China to participate in a workshop on history and international relations.
Professor Tim Dunne said: “The 60th anniversary is a good occasion to evaluate what kind of country China has become. It also offers international relations experts the opportunity to question whether an authoritarian power such as the Communist Party can embrace capitalism without sowing the seeds of its own demise. To be a global power requires more than military might. In an age of globalisation, global powers have to be economic titans. China is certainly one of these. It has become the world’s second biggest economy.”
According to Professor Dunne, the history of development in the West suggests economic and political liberalization are inseparable. He said “Far from being a threat to capitalism, social democracy is in fact essential to its durability. Ideologies of modernisation, whether these spring from the left or the right, imply that there is only one path to development. Asian economies have so far resisted this trend. Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, are all examples of successful authoritarian capitalist countries. The question is whether such a model could apply to a country as large and complex as China.”
While economists probe the relationship between economic and political liberalisation, experts on international relations weigh up the relationship between economic and military power. Will a rising China become a threat to western interests?
Professor Dunne said, “One way of responding to China’s rise is to recognise the importance of status. Instead of beating the drum of containment, as realists do, or insisting on compliance to western ideas, as liberals propose, a better policy is to enmesh China in the multilateral order such that it binds itself to the institutions and purposes of the system overall.”
Date: 1 October 2009
