CHINA – THE RISING POWER

The Japanese are the most determined people in the world. After
the Second World War, the United States of America thought it better
that they have the friendship of the Japanese rather than risk fighting
them. The United States of America decided to help the Japanese to
recover from the devastations of the Second World War and the
nuclear attacks on its cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and offered its
friendship to Japan. Indeed dissuading Japan from acquiring nuclear
weapons and technology was the prime part of the deal in exchange to
defence umbrella provided by the United States of America.

China is a communist country. It has got cheap labour because of

low salary and wages and vast market because of its huge population.
So many foreign investments have come its way leading it to become
an economic power. Its efficient leadership and dreams of world power
made it a military power also. China is a nuclear country and now
proving its might in space technology.

There has always been enmity between Japan and China as both
want to control the region they are in. Communist China saw Japan
with suspicion as it was the friend and close ally of the USA from the
days of Cold War while Japan similarly reciprocated as China was a
Communist country. Further, both are contenders for regional
superiority from the 1950s. The last six decades found Japan giving
way to South Korea as a regional economic power while China is
making rapid moves towards its goal of becoming a super power.

China’s rise in the fields of Economy has been staggering. It is

fast becoming an industrial power with huge demand for its goods all
over the world because of their lower prices without compromise in
quality. Also, it is noted that if a new technology were developed,
China would be the first to adopt it. It is this initiative of its leaders that
brought this dream transformation in China’s economic prowess in a
matter of a few decades from a developing country to its present
compulsion of being counted as a super power.

There is an adage that a wounded tiger is more ferocious when it

is wounded and fallen. It was what happened to China in 1949
immediately after Communists took the reigns of the country. The
world community except for those countries that belonged to the
Communist bloc distanced the Communist country. Most countries of
the world including the United States of America refused to recognise
the new Government and preferred to continue their diplomatic
relations with Taiwan than with the mainland of China. China had to
struggle hard for years to gain admission to the United Nations
Organisation to replace Taiwan in spite of it being the most populated
country in the world with a vast geographical area. India’s well
intended efforts through its gentlemanly Prime Minister, Shree
Jawaharlal Nehru to accommodate Communist China by introducing its
leaders like Mr. Chou-En-Lai and others to world leaders in
international meetings like the Bandung Conference and moves for the
admission of the mainland of China to the United Nations Organisation
further infuriated the wounded proud tiger as it saw the smaller
neighbour’s and its world stature leaders’ patronage as national
humiliation of China and its Communist regime. The result was the
1962 October Chinese aggression on Indian northern borders on the
pretext of border disputes and Chinese claims on the present state of
Arunachal Pradesh, and India’s humiliating defeat.
 China, if anything, has risen on the ladder of Economics as well
as Military prowess by the sheer dint of patriotism, large dreams,
commitment, competence and hard work of its leadership. This is a
very great rise for a poor and developing country beyond wildest
dreams to achieve within a span of half a century. China could stalk
this far because of its outstanding leadership. China is already
recognised informally as one of the world leaders and an indisputable
regional power in Asia head and shoulder above former giants like
Japan and South Korea and perhaps stands on par with Russia in its
economic and military stature. The true rise of China started from late
1990s after the transfer of Hong Kong from the British lease to the
mainland of China. Chinese leaders by all possibility learnt and picked
the ropes of development and progress from the westernised and
developed city of Hong Kong and intelligently adapted the tricks to
their needs and system to produce a rare hybrid of unprecedented
success. The kind of growth and progress seen in China in a short span
of time fades the otherwise stunning stories of progress witnessed in
countries like the City State of Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and
Taiwan in the Asian continent. Its rapid rise in the ranks of the world
made it a respectable country in spite of its Communist system and its
disputes with both the United States of America and Russia, and its
opinions and actions on world affairs are countenanced with
seriousness and alarm as for no other countries, and no days pass
without the world press, televisions and Internet news referring to
China and activities pertaining to it.

China with about one-sixth of the world population accounts for

the highest number of rich people of the Asian continent and
accounted for eleven billionaires in 2003 against seven in India.
 In spite of all this advancement, the people of China continue to
be poor by world standards and they may remain so for some time
considering their number. China, to be a great world power, has to
attend this weakness of it. The Government of China is doing its best to
improve the lots of its rural folks and city poor through novel schemes.
But, raising the standards of a billion people overnight is beyond any
human dream, lest China’s leadership is trying in that direction.

Italy and China are two countries situated far from each other.
They were hardly aware of each other in ancient times and came to
know about each other only after Marco Polo came to China from Italy
and wrote about China in his memoirs. Italy and China are competitors
these days in world trade in identical goods and both have identical
interests in most fields. Both countries claim noodles as part of their
culinary expertise and enjoy cultural similarities.

THE XINJIANG TROUBLE

China has had huge trouble in Urumqi in 2009 in which ethnic

tensions erupted between the local Uighar Muslims and Han Chinese
damaging China’s image. Both groups are antagonistic towards each
other after Han Chinese has been found migrating to that region and
feared to be taking away the job opportunities of the locals.

The Chinese Government tried to diffuse the tensions and

ultimately succeeded. China internally had relatively peaceful life for
decades free of tensions and internal conflicts under the Communist
regime save for the occasional Tibetan uprise and the students protest
at the Tianamen Square in 1989.
 The migration of Han Chinese to the Uighar Muslims majority
Urumqi from the different parts of China that affected the demography
of the region is at the root of the problem. There are now almost as
many Han Chinese in Urumqi as there are the Uighar Muslims. This has
caused tensions between the locals and the Han Chinese. In a toy
manufacturing company a few days back, a group of Han Chinese
killed two of the local Uighar Muslims and this led to commotions in the
area and locals went on a rampage killing Han Chinese. That led to
serious clashes between the two ethnic groups at Xinjiang, the capital
of Urumqi leading to heavy casualties of life and properties forcing the
Chinese President Hu Jintao to return home halfway from the G5, G8
summit and dispatch the army to control the situation at Xinjiang.

When one thinks of China, he used to think of it as a smaller

version of the former Soviet Union of the Stalin vintage with
Communism, one party rule, spies and secret agents, suspicion,
oppression and suppression of the opponents and ruthless
administration, and as a satellite of the latter. No more of that now.
China of present days stands up to Russia as much as it stands up to
the United States of America or any other developed countries in spite
of the brethren feelings for the former out of the Communist ideology.
It has long-standing border disputes with Russia and adopts its own
policies in foreign as well as economic fields. Under no stretch of
imagination, it can be called as a satellite of any other super power. On
the other hand, most developed countries are competing to befriend
China and develop economic and trade relations with the country.

China’s economic growth has been strong for quite some time
now. For the last few years it has recorded an economic growth of
excess of ten percent. This however had been forecast to decrease
over the course of the past year, because of the economic crisis that
has struck the world. However, it has been seen that this has not
happened and China has done rather well for itself in the economic
front over the last one year.

This has been attributed to the massive stimulus plan that China
has drawn up last year. This massive trillion-dollar plan has shored up
China to a very good extent. The United States has on the other hand
not been doing well, like other developed countries and also India.

China has recorded an economic growth of 7.9% for 2008-2009,

which is much better than previously expected. This is thus a rather
good thing for the Chinese and this is something that the Chinese will
be hoping to build on over the next few months and years. After half of
last year, China had seen a small slump in their economy amounting to
about five or six percent to 6.4% growth. However, they have
recovered rather well to post the overall growth over the last one year.

The Chinese government is hoping to do better than that in

2009-2010 and this is some thing that China will try to accomplish.
However, expert opinion is that it is just not be possible because of the
decreasing export demands from the United States and other countries
in the crunch of the world economic recession. Thus, China may have a
bad year in economics next year.