Is China an Imperial Power?

On the 1st of August, 2017, the Chinese military put in use a military base the Chinese government had
established in Djibouti, an African country based on the horn of Africa.This marked a significant shift in
Chinese foreign policy (notably, their global expansion as opposed to their regional expansion) as well as
a contradiction in Chinese foreign PR. For years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had openly
criticized the “American way of geopolitics''. A common theme in CCP geopolitical authoritative texts is
the term “American way”, referencing America’s tendency to hold foreign military bases. The CCP under
General Secretary of the CCP (Xi Jinping) had pledged that it would never embark on such actions. This
dogma was spread at a press conference with Xi Jinping and ex-President Barack Obama*1. When the
PLA stationed its troops (notably Chinese marines and navy) in the Djibouti base, China switched its
rhetoric to “taking the necessary steps for the protection of Chinese interests”*2. These interests go from
blunting piracy and protecting economic interests in the region to military exercises. This base marked a
turning point for a foreign policy which would seek to change the world order. Although the CCP’s grand
strategy to achieve this goal is multifaceted, a large aspect of it is to do with foreign influence. This often
leads to the question of whether China is an imperial power. This essay believes that the questions can be
answered with a firm yes, China is an imperial power. Books on China, documents of meetings, reports,
historical context, and other sources will be used to confirm this answer.

To start any debate over whether a country is an imperial power, one must go through three steps. The
first is to define what an imperial power is. The second is to see if the nation in question has the
capabilities to be an imperial power. The third is to see if it has shown direct intent to do so. The fourth is
to see if it has used such capabilities for the aforementioned goal. To begin with the first question,
Britannica*3 defines “imperialism” as:

“imperialism, state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct
territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas.”

A state that has imperialism as a major state policy can be defined as an imperial power (in respect to
context), so one must first look at if the state in discussion has the intent to enact such a policy. Before
getting into the question of intent, two important notes are warranted. First, China was the foremost power
of the world for around 2000 years, from 206BC - 1842 when the British Empire won the Opium Wars
(1839-1842). During their 3000 years as the regional hegemon, they made tributaries of all surrounding
nations and were a sought after trading partner of the European and African civilizations. Their downfall
was mostly due to a lack of innovation, complacency, arrogance, and a lack of proper military equipment
in the face of the more advanced and stronger European empires.*4. This kickstarted the “Age of
Humiliation” which saw China suffering massive defeats culminating in a civil war where the communist
faction won. The end result was a famine that killed an estimated 20-40 million people with little to show
for it. When Deng Xiaoping took charge of the CCP and Chinese state in 1978, he opened the world up to
China, kickstarting the rapid rise of China and ending the Century of Humiliation. The second note is that
the CCP is both a Leninist and nationalist party. To quote Rush Doshi in his book The Long Game,
China’s Grand Strategy to Replace American Order:

“Scholars note that nationalism has long been ingrained in the party’s ideology and identity, with a long
historical line connecting the party of today with the nationalist ferment of the late Qing Dynasty.”
Pg 27

“Leninism provided the practice - the principles of organization related to gaining and wielding power
that have endured even after Marxism has withered.”
Pg 32

This means that China both works as a “coherent body of thought and action” due to Leninism, and
towards a goal of “national rejuvenation”. It seeks to regain and exceed the regional and international
status of China from its golden age. To connect this to the prompt, this shows an intent by the CCP to turn
China into a strong imperial power. To quote ex-General Secretary Hu Jintao,

“The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is the great ideal of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, their
comrades, and millions of revolutionary martyrs… Today, the baton of history has reached our hands.”

Now it must be proven that China has the capabilities to be an imperial power. There are two broad
categories of power one must look at when it comes to gaining control over an entity. Hard power & soft
power. Hard power can be seen as military might. Those nations with the largest and most effective
militaries have the most hard power. The USA is well known for having the best military in the world,
therefore has incredible amounts of hard power. China has the world’s largest (if not best) army and it
continues to modernize and expand. It can be confirmed that China has the capacity to use hard power.
Soft power can be seen as non-military influence. Economic leverage, political leverage (within both
national and international organizations), et cetera. That being said, nations with the largest economies
don’t inherently have the most soft power. Rather, soft power depends on your ability to control an
economy, politics, and the rest. Russia is an exemplar of soft power, as it was and is able to control its
economy (mostly through government corruption) to corrupt governments (mostly situated in Eastern
Europe), reduce action against itself (e.g. sanctions, condemnations, bad press), and make itself incredibly
wealthy while doing so, a venture which Catherine Beton’s “Putin’s People” expertly shows.*5 That
being said, China must take the crown for greatest wielder of soft power in the modern world. A
commonality between China and Russia is “authoritarian capitalism”*6. a system where an authoritarian
government co-exists alongside a “free” market. In such systems, the government usually holds much
control over corporations. In China, the CCP is known for appointing party members or loyalists to the
boards of large businesses, leveraging the influence of said corporations to achieve its goals, and other
similar actions. Furthermore, China has repeatedly used its position as the largest movie market in the
world to incentivise and often outright make companies like Disney change their movies to remove
potentially CCP critical elements in them. It can confidently be established that China has the capability
to use soft power. Furthermore, the CCP is able to coordinate all elements of state simultaneously, making
foreign policy work faster than other less centralized governments.*7 It has been established that China
has the capability to efficiently use hard and soft power. It has the capabilities to “extend power and
dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other
[nations].” Now an investigation into ways in which China has used its influence must be launched to
determine whether China has used its aforementioned capabilities. In particular, three forms of control
will be looked at. Military, economic, and political influence. Two examples will be used respectively.
The South China Sea conflict and Sino-African relations. Economic and political influence are so deeply
intertwined in the cases to be discussed that making three examples would end up retreading the same
case twice.

The South China Sea (SCS) is home to a wealth of resources, namely an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil
and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.*8 Furthermore, half of the world’s oil tankers and merchant
vessels sail through it every year, making the sea an extremely valuable economic zone. There are seven
nations reaching the SCS: China, Taiwan, Vietnam, The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia. All
nations have made claims in the SCS, but China (and Taiwan) have made the largest with a “nine dash
line” which includes most of the SCS leaving only small amounts of shoreline to the other 5 nations.
Since the early 1970s, China has worked to secure the South China Sea for itself.*9 This began with the
claiming of several islands (most notably the Spratly Islands) China has moved to take aggressive military
action against the other claimants and has even built 3 artificial islands for military activities. To this day,
China has been able to maintain control over the region (although it has always been shaky and contested)
with…

“The world’s largest mine arsenal, the world’s first anti-ship ballistic missile, and the world's largest
submarine fleet.”*10

China has also become the world’s largest military and possesses the world’s largest fleet, helping it
control regional waters. The situation is made worse by the fact that China has enormous economic sway
over SCS nations, meaning that they cannot make large fusses about the situation or else they are met
with both harsh military and economic attacks. Only the USA can muster any real defiance with their
naval military patrols, but even these interventions are being stifled by an aggressive and rising Chinese
military. From this information we can safely say that China has in fact used its military capabilities for
the purpose of imperialism.

The second capability we must discuss is if China uses its economic power for imperialism. For this
purpose the example of Sino-African relations is poignant. China has heavily invested in African
countries. The introduction mentioned the Djibouti military base, but that is just one facet in a massive
funding spree that China has embarked on within Africa. Universities, factories, infrastructure, harbors,
and more have been funded and created by the Chinese.*11 In return, these nations work within
international organizations to protect Chinese interests. The UN can function as an amazing example,
where the more votes you get for a resolution, amendment, and/or clause, the higher the chance of passing
it becomes. Each nation has one vote, so China can easily use its leverage to have nations vote a certain
way.*12 Seeing this, it can be agreed upon that China has used its economic potential for the purposes of
establishing control over a nation’s actions, forwarding imperialism.

To conclude, China has openly expressed intent to regain its position as an imperial power, it possesses
the capabilities needed to become an imperial power, and it has used these capabilities as we have
described within the essay. Though this essay has been able to prove with the examples of the SCS
conflict and Sino-African relations, it is important to note that there are other similar events like these.
China has used its military might to take regions near it, China has for decades planned an invasion of
Taiwan that draws frighteningly closer by the day, and the Sino-African relation matter can be observed
within South America and even the EU. China has not just established itself as an imperial power, it has
established itself as an imperial powerhouse that has an efficient and ruthless central party to champion its
ambitions.

Sources:

1. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/25/remarks-president-obama-and
-president-xi-peoples-republic-china-joint

2. https://www.globalasia.org/v12no3/feature/djibouti-military-base-is-a-new-step-in-chinas-maritim
e-footprint_rajaram-panda

3. https://www.britannica.com/topic/imperialism

4. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199920082/obo-9780199
920082-0029.xml

5. https://d-pdf.com/book/587/read

6. https://iiit.org/wp-content/uploads/Daniel-Kinderman-Authoritarian-Capitalism2.pdf

7. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20058957

8. https://www.eia.gov/international/content/analysis/regions_of_interest/South_China_Sea/
south_china_sea.pdf

9. https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/territorial-disputes-south-china-sea

10. https://www.brookings.edu/essay/the-long-game-chinas-grand-strategy-to-displace-ameri
can-order/
11. https://www.orfonline.org/research/china-in-africa/

12. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-china-is-taking-over-international-organizations-one-vo
te-at-a-time-11601397208