macgyver
May 3rd, 2005, 01:53 AM
Very long article .... Amazing, Asthonishing, Interesting ....
As Indonesian ..... just envy how they successfully did this .....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7693580/site/newsweek/page/4/
Does the Future Belong to China?
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Business center: Shanghai's financial center is eight times larger than London's Canary Wharf
Ilkka Uimonen / Magnum for Newsweek
Business center: Shanghai's financial center is eight times larger than London's Canary Wharf
A New Kind Of Challenge
For the first decade of its development (the 1980s), China did not have a foreign policy. Or rather, its grand strategy was a growth strategy. China quietly supported (or did not oppose) U.S. policies, largely because it saw good relations with America as the cornerstone of its development push. And this nonconfrontational approach—"to hide its brightness"—still lingers. With the exception of anything related to Taiwan, even now its major foreign-policy moves are largely outgrowths of economic imperatives. These days that means a ceaseless search for continued supplies of oil and other commodities.
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But things are changing. In a paper titled "The Beijing Consensus," drawing heavily on interviews with leading Chinese officials and academics, Joshua Cooper Ramo provides a fascinating picture of China's new foreign policy. "Rather than building a US-style power, bristling with arms and intolerant of others' world views," he writes, "China's emerging power is based on the example of their own model, the strength of their economic system, and their rigid defense of ... national sovereignty" (http://fpc.org. uk/publications/123).
China has followed a very different development strategy than Japan. Rather than focusing only on export-led growth to a few markets and keeping its internal market closed, China opened itself to foreign investment and trade. The result is that much of the world now relies on the China market. From the United States to Germany to Japan, exports to China are among the crucial factors propelling growth. For developing markets, China is the indispensable trading partner.
In November 2004, President George W. Bush and China's President Hu Jintao traveled through Asia. I was in the region a few weeks afterward and was struck by how almost everyone I spoke with rated Hu's visits as far more successful than Bush's. Karim Raslan, a Malaysian writer, explained: "Bush talked obsessively about terror. He sees all of us through that one prism. Yes, we worry about terror, but frankly that's not the sum of our lives. We have many other problems. We're retooling our economies, we're wondering how to deal with the rise of China, we're trying to address health, social and environmental problems. Hu talked about all this; he talked about our agenda, not just his agenda." From Indonesia to Brazil, China is winning new friends.
There are a group of Americans—chiefly neoconservatives and Pentagon officials—who have been sounding the alarms about the Chinese threat. And they speak of it largely in military terms, usually wildly exaggerating China's capabilities. But the facts simply do not support their case. China is certainly expanding its military, with a budget that rises 10 percent or more a year. But it is still spending a fraction of what America does, at most 10 percent of the Pentagon's annual bill.
The Chinese threat or challenge will not present itself in the familiar guise of another Soviet Union, straining to keep pace with America in military terms. It is more likely to be what Ramo describes as an "asymmetrical superpower." It will use its economic dominance and its political skills to achieve its objectives. China does not want to invade and occupy Taiwan; it is more likely to keep undermining the Taiwan independence movement, so that Beijing slowly accumulates advantage and wears out the opponent. "The goal for China is not conflict but the avoidance of conflict," Ramo writes. "True success in strategic issues involves manipulating a situation so effectively that the outcome is inevitably in favor of Chinese interests. This emerges from the oldest Chinese strategic thinker, Sun Zi, who argued that 'every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought'."
At least that's the plan. The trouble is that while maintaining this long-term strategy, China often lapses into short-term behavior that seems aggressive and hostile. Perhaps this is because the rational decision-making that guides its economic policy is not so easily applied in the realm of politics, where honor, history, pride and anger all play a large role. So with Taiwan, last week Beijing was playing out its long-term plan, "normalizing" relations with the island's main opposition party, and smothering it with conciliation. But last month it passed the anti-secession law, which angered most Taiwanese and alarmed Americans and Europeans.
As Indonesian ..... just envy how they successfully did this .....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7693580/site/newsweek/page/4/
Does the Future Belong to China?
< Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Next >
Business center: Shanghai's financial center is eight times larger than London's Canary Wharf
Ilkka Uimonen / Magnum for Newsweek
Business center: Shanghai's financial center is eight times larger than London's Canary Wharf
A New Kind Of Challenge
For the first decade of its development (the 1980s), China did not have a foreign policy. Or rather, its grand strategy was a growth strategy. China quietly supported (or did not oppose) U.S. policies, largely because it saw good relations with America as the cornerstone of its development push. And this nonconfrontational approach—"to hide its brightness"—still lingers. With the exception of anything related to Taiwan, even now its major foreign-policy moves are largely outgrowths of economic imperatives. These days that means a ceaseless search for continued supplies of oil and other commodities.
advertisement
But things are changing. In a paper titled "The Beijing Consensus," drawing heavily on interviews with leading Chinese officials and academics, Joshua Cooper Ramo provides a fascinating picture of China's new foreign policy. "Rather than building a US-style power, bristling with arms and intolerant of others' world views," he writes, "China's emerging power is based on the example of their own model, the strength of their economic system, and their rigid defense of ... national sovereignty" (http://fpc.org. uk/publications/123).
China has followed a very different development strategy than Japan. Rather than focusing only on export-led growth to a few markets and keeping its internal market closed, China opened itself to foreign investment and trade. The result is that much of the world now relies on the China market. From the United States to Germany to Japan, exports to China are among the crucial factors propelling growth. For developing markets, China is the indispensable trading partner.
In November 2004, President George W. Bush and China's President Hu Jintao traveled through Asia. I was in the region a few weeks afterward and was struck by how almost everyone I spoke with rated Hu's visits as far more successful than Bush's. Karim Raslan, a Malaysian writer, explained: "Bush talked obsessively about terror. He sees all of us through that one prism. Yes, we worry about terror, but frankly that's not the sum of our lives. We have many other problems. We're retooling our economies, we're wondering how to deal with the rise of China, we're trying to address health, social and environmental problems. Hu talked about all this; he talked about our agenda, not just his agenda." From Indonesia to Brazil, China is winning new friends.
There are a group of Americans—chiefly neoconservatives and Pentagon officials—who have been sounding the alarms about the Chinese threat. And they speak of it largely in military terms, usually wildly exaggerating China's capabilities. But the facts simply do not support their case. China is certainly expanding its military, with a budget that rises 10 percent or more a year. But it is still spending a fraction of what America does, at most 10 percent of the Pentagon's annual bill.
The Chinese threat or challenge will not present itself in the familiar guise of another Soviet Union, straining to keep pace with America in military terms. It is more likely to be what Ramo describes as an "asymmetrical superpower." It will use its economic dominance and its political skills to achieve its objectives. China does not want to invade and occupy Taiwan; it is more likely to keep undermining the Taiwan independence movement, so that Beijing slowly accumulates advantage and wears out the opponent. "The goal for China is not conflict but the avoidance of conflict," Ramo writes. "True success in strategic issues involves manipulating a situation so effectively that the outcome is inevitably in favor of Chinese interests. This emerges from the oldest Chinese strategic thinker, Sun Zi, who argued that 'every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought'."
At least that's the plan. The trouble is that while maintaining this long-term strategy, China often lapses into short-term behavior that seems aggressive and hostile. Perhaps this is because the rational decision-making that guides its economic policy is not so easily applied in the realm of politics, where honor, history, pride and anger all play a large role. So with Taiwan, last week Beijing was playing out its long-term plan, "normalizing" relations with the island's main opposition party, and smothering it with conciliation. But last month it passed the anti-secession law, which angered most Taiwanese and alarmed Americans and Europeans.