Chinese and Western Perspectives on Rise of China

【Abstract】The rise of China has aroused attention from both Chinese and Western scholars. They analyzed the factors of the rise from different aspects， especially Chinese researchers contributed many articles and books in this area. This essay illustrates the similar and different points of views of domestic and foreign scholars， aiming at presenting a true and a fast growing China in economy， politics and culture.

【Key words】civilization state; leaders wisdom; stability; world power

【作者簡介】袁琴芬，无锡城市职业技术学院基础部。

Ι.  Introduction

With the successful implementation of the opening and reform policy， China has become the second largest economy since 2010. China has become probably a more important shaper of the global economy， a more important shaper of globalization than the United States. The economic growth started in 1978 which was only 1/20 of size of the America economy size， at a rate of approximately 10% a year for over 30 years. It has not hit a crisis so far. China has surpassed other strong economies in the areas of mobile payment， infrastructure construction and 5G， AI technology etc. Domestic researchers attribute the rise of China to the great vision of leaders and government， the right strategy， the right route， the diligence and wisdom of the great Chinese nation. Western scholars also have their reasons for this， although they share some points of view.

Ⅱ.Shared views：

1. Both Chinese and western researchers agree to the view that Chinese policy makers are very smart. They have vision and wisdom.

First， at present mobile payment has penetrated deeply into Chinese peoples daily lives. In China， most payment can be made by mobile phones. In America， it is not impossible because it will cause great losses to big financial groups. They favor the use of credit cards and banks profit depends so much on them. But our president Xi Jinping， advocates the reform of Supply Side so he contained the domestic protests. It is a kind of revolution. The success of internet technology has close relationship with political factors， which stands for the interest of all the Chinese people as a whole， rather than for some people. And any revolution in China is bound to succeed with the principle of protecting the interest of all the Chinese people.

2.China has always been developing a cautious attitude toward reform. China only identifies with economic globalization， not political globalization. The emphasis of Chinas opening of capital market is put on attracting foreign real economy--- FDI. Large scale of capital market is still not open. Once open， an economic crisis would sweep away all the capital. Take Malaysia for instance， its twenty years of development was destroyed completely by the 2008 financial crisis.

3. Chinese government doesnt make RMB convertible， very wisely against all advises from the west， against the Washington consensus. In this way Chinese government can control the development of the Chinese economy， free from speculate movement which could destabilize economy. Chinese policy makers have made a strategic decision. “But since 2008， they have started to make RMB available in the sediment of trade with Africa and Latin America. RMB is beginning to become an international currency in time down the road it will become convertible. It wont be very long before it replaces the dollar as the dominant reserved currency.”

4. China suffered relatively minor political losses during the financial crisis of 2008 and financial losses during the political crisis of 2017 due the prejudgment and prep reparation of Chinese government. Dollar as the world currency fell drastically by a large margin. Stock market crash would result in the paralysis of global financial system. So the world need China to boost economy. In the 2008 crisis， Chinese provinces which depended heavily on export trade suffered obvious influence， but take the proportion of losses into consideration， China was still the least shocked. The economic growth rate decreased from 10% per year after the year 2008， but it still remained stable compared with other countries. And in 2014， China became the largest economy according to PPP（purchasing Power Parity）. “正如2008年后中國在经济领域相对获益一样，中国国际政治地位也将在2017年政治危机中得到明显提升”

Ⅲ. Different views

1. Westerners know China as a country for the last 100 years， but actually China has a history of civilization for several thousands of years. So to Martin Jacques， China is constituted on the basis of civilization rather on the basis of national identity. One example to mention is the handover of HongKong to China from Britain in 1997. China offers “One Country， Two Systems”. Nation-state logic is “One Country， One System”， the way the new Germany was born. But its impossible to run a country of this extraordinary size and diversity. It is vast， various， enormous not just economically， but also politically， culturally or in many different ways. The only was China could run is the basis of “One civilization， several systems”. with its return to China， the economy of HongKong recovers， develops and remains stable. It is still the center of international finance， trade and shipping.

2. the process of modernization of China is not like the mode of western ones. Both western countries and China have shared notion of universal-ism. There should be a model for the world. The Europeans interpreted universal-ism as a desire to expand across the world， to conquer territory and to civilize the uncivilized， to project and convert their religion. Netherlands became the world power due to its strong sea trade. America became the world power after making a large amount of fortune from the two World Wars. Around 1890. America was the largest world economy. It stated wars with Spain and colonized Philippine and Cuba.

Chinas notion of the universal-ism was the land of heaven， the middle kingdom， the most advanced civilization in the world. They had a sense of superiority. They refused to step out of their civilization. They didnt colonize， instead they had the tribute system. They had quite different experiences from westerners. That explain why China didnt catch up with the third industrial revolution and fell behind in the period of between 1880 and 1949. Even after its rise to become the second largest economy， they possess the military strength to recover lost islands including South China Sea islands and reefs， they still didnt resort to wars to solve these problems.China loves peace and has great power to stop wars. “中华民族之所以在世界上有地位，有影响， 不是靠穷兵黩武，不是靠对外扩张。”The whole process of rise is the peaceful rise and its rise is a great contribution to the welfare of a community of shared future for mankind. It was not， is not and will not be a global power. “能与世界各国尤其是大国和平共处，合作共赢，共同繁荣，这才是中国和平崛起的最终含义。”

3. Westerners think china doesnt have democracy so its got no Legitimacy. Legitimacy is the state is purely and simply a function of democracy. But statistics shows that the Chinese government enjoys high level of satisfaction among the people. Chinese see the state as the embodiment of what the country is. They see the state as the representative guardian of Chinese civilization. It is the protector of unity. In western society we see the state in essentially utilitarian and instrumental terms. They see the state as familial terms. Emperors are fathers.

According to Zhang Weiwei， democracy and dictatorship are outdated terms， which can not explain the complicated world pattern. Instead， they should be replaced by “good governance” or “bad governance”. Western countries declares themselves as democratic as their president is chosen by voting. In order to impose political and social restrictions on capital， America set upper limit for donation to preferential candidates. But in 2010， American Supreme Judicial Court decided to set no upper limit for organizational donation. In 2014， there was no limit for individual donation. We know that the running of election cost a huge amount of fund. The more you donate， the more likely the candidates you support will win. And in return you will enjoy more beneficial policy， which is quite utilitarian. The candidates of Chinese policy makers all have had the experience of governing at least 2 provinces before they enter the central political bureau. The system that Chinese presidents is elected on the basis of meritocracy has already showed more advantages than that of the west. To find proof， just look back on the 8 years of bad governance under former President Junior Bush. The comprehensive power of America decreased over that period. Greece and Iceland have gone bankrupt. Many non-western countries adopted western democracy also failed. “一個非西方国家，如果采用了今天的西方民主模式，基本上只有两种结局：一种是从希望到失望、如菲律宾、泰国、乌克兰、吉尔吉克斯坦等;另一种是从希望到绝望，如海地、伊拉克、阿富汗、刚果民主共和国等。”

4.Ethnic construction. China has a population of more than 1.3 billion， and most of them think they are of one race---Han. Although there are more than 50 minority nationality in China， all the people consider themselves Chinese， the descendants of Emperor Yan and Huang. All the Chinese are a unity. India， the United States， Brazil and Indonesia all regard themselves to be multiracial multicultural. China is the longest continuous existing polity in the world. The ancient oriental civilizations like Persia， Babylon， Egypt and Ottoman have all disappeared. China is the only one to rise up in the area of new technology revolution. In the past 2000 years of history， the west became the world power only for recent 200 years. For the rest 1800 years， China was one the most advanced civilization of the world. So for many people， China is returning to where they have always been.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

China is on the rise. The rise of China will bring new balance to the world new economy system， push forward the process of globalization， contribute Chinese governing wisdom to the world and promote the sustainable economic development. China is on the rise， but there still exist large gapes with the world strong economy and many problems appear on the way towards rejuvenation. Chinese people should be confident with the success achieved but also focus more on building soft power， meanwhile keep a cautious attitude towards its own development and the cooperation with other countries.

References：

[1]Speech by Martin Jacques from YouTube. 2018-12-1-28.

[2]季雪.對美关系与中国崛起[J].丝路聚焦，2017-07-28.