Trending: IMF Dollar ePaper

HOME PAKISTAN WORLD EDITORIALS & OPINIONS BUSINESS SPORTS

ARTS, CULTURE & BOOKS LIFESTYLE E-PAPER INVESTOR INFO 

COMMENTARY / INSIGHT

China’s alarming rise to power

At the regional level, China’s in luence and projection of power are even more pronounced. All this has been
helped by a corresponding decline in US’ in luence

(More Articles by S P Seth) S P Seth (More Articles by S 0

Shares
P Seth) (Total
(Facebook)
(Twitter)(Linkedin)
(Whatsapp)
(Email) (Print)
Shares)
MARCH 6, 2018

China’s rise is upsetting the post-WW-II international system

and is seen by some as a serious threat to global and regional
stability. In this respect, what Germany’s foreign minister
Sigmar Gabriel had to say at the recent Munich Security
Conference sums up such views and sentiments.

He said, “The initiative for a new Silk Road (China’s One Belt,
One Road initiative) is not a sentimental reminder of Marco
Polo. Rather, it stands for the attempt to establish a
comprehensive system for shaping the world in Chinese
interest.”
He added, “It is no longer just about the economy: China is
developing a comprehensive system alternative to the Western
one, which, unlike our model, is not based on freedom,
democracy and individual human rights.” He said that “China
was currently the only country in the world with a truly global,
geostrategic idea.”

Elaborating, Gabriel conceded that, “The liberal order which

reformed our world after the devastation of two world wars is
certainly not perfect. But where the architecture of the liberal
order crumbles, others will begin to move [Russia included]
their pillars into the building. In the long term, the entire
building will change. I’m sure in the end neither Americans nor
Europeans will feel comfortable in this building built to Chinese
architecture.”

At the regional level, China’s in luence and projection of power

are even more pronounced. All this has been helped by a
corresponding decline in US power, with the United States
engaged in a series of debilitating military con licts in the
Middle East in the nearly last two decades.

Even though President Obama announced, in 2011, his policy

to pivot the US attention to contain China’s power in the Indo-
Paci ic region, the continued military engagement in the Middle
East didn’t allow much time and energy to develop the new
policy. During prolonged US engagement in the Middle East,
starting with Afghanistan, China was able to expand its regional
pro ile, including expanding its control of the South China Sea
islands to the point that it is now increasingly looking like its
internal lake.

The US attempts to challenge China’s control by sending naval

patrols to exercise the right to freedom of navigation have not
dented Beijing’s resolve. It has warned the US against the
provocative behaviour. Washington’s attempts to rally regional
countries to be part of the freedom of navigation patrols have
not borne fruit even with its closest ally, Australia.

Regional countries are increasingly seeking to adjust to, what

looks like to them, an evolving China-centred regional order.
China’s growing economic and military power against a
backdrop of perceived US lack of resolve to confront China is
driving them in this direction.

Australia’s case is instructive, as it tries to strike a delicate

balance between its largest trading power, China, and its
military ally, the US. Even though an important factor
motivating Australia’s US alliance is its perceived security
threat from a powerful China, Canberra continues, in its public
utterances, to deny this.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull dismissed the idea

that China presents a ‘threat’ even as he started his recently-
concluded visit to the United States. Indeed, he warned against
a ‘Cold War’ view of China, while seeking to emphasise its role
in preventing a nuclear crisis with North Korea. He described
North Korea as the ‘ irst’ priority in dealing with strategic
threats to Australia.

„
 “
Washington’s attempts to rally regional
countries to be part of the freedom of
navigation patrols in the South China Sea
have not borne fruit, even with the help of
its closest marine ally, Australia

But the debate here is all about China’s threat to the region and
Australia, as well as its pervasive role in creating an in luential
group of ‘ ifth columnists’, serving China’s interests. The latter
will require a separate discussion some other time. But the
threat to the region is very much being talked about, not only in
the context of China’s claimed sovereignty over much of the
South China Sea; but elsewhere in the region, as in the
Maldives, now in the midst of a political crisis. It is reported
that a Chinese naval task force has been in the Indian Ocean,
while Beijing’s ally, the Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen
wrestles with his domestic crisis by putting his political
enemies in jail.

According to Professor Peter Dean at the University of Western

Australia, “If it is what it seems to be (to prop up the Yameen
regime in Maldives), which is the use of a naval task force to
intervene in the Maldives, it’s (China) using military force to
in luence the outcome of political decisions in another
country,which is quite disturbing.” Australia is particularly
concerned about perceived Chinese machinations in its own
South Paci ic backyard. Australia is a superpower of sorts for
some of the small South Paci ic countries reliant on Australian
aid.

Now China is increasing its presence in these countries, doling

out concessional loans for infrastructure projects that are said
to go nowhere. There is a concern here that these countries,
being unable to pay their unproductive loans, will end up being
subjected to Beijing’s coercion.
 Indeed, this pattern of doling out unsustainable loans to
different countries as part of the Belt and Road initiative, and
then acquiring a controlling interest in their resources and
ports, is emerging as part of China’s overall strategy; designed
to create, by the middle of the century, a China-centred world
order.

At least that is how China’s rise is being seen, by a number of

countries, as a threat to the existing Western-centred world
order created after World War-II.

The writer is a senior journalist and academic based in Sydney.

He can be reached at sushilpseth@yahoo.co.au

Published in Daily Times, March 6th 2018.

0
Shares
(Total
(Facebook)
(Twitter)(Linkedin)
(Whatsapp)
(Email) (Print)
Shares)

Submit a Comment
2 Comments Sort by Oldest

Add a comment...

Victor Chan
China is united politically while Western nations are divided
internally. A united country will always out-perform a divided one.
This is similar to a corporation with one CEO versus a corporation
with two CEOs who are fighting each other for power. Democracy
is based on an adversary system. We need to acknowledge this
and figure out how to change Democracy is be more united and
more competitive.
Like · Reply · 1y

Victor Chan
Forgot to proof-read. I meant "to be more united"