The rise of China

   As is evident in today's academic literatures, the rise of China has been one of the key issues for fronting the others in the 21st century chart. Taking us back to history, China safeguarded its ancient civilization with its status quo as the middle kingdom. A period of transformation later followed where China experience some of the most difficult situations of time, however after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949,a gradual and later rapid transformation has taken its form to this current present China. The rate at which China is transformed is well recognized and this is where this common slogan “China rise" has come into being. Academics therefore focus much on this issue in analyzing China's growth in terms of its Political, economic, military and technological aspects. However analyzing China's rise base on these aspects leads to two roads of thought, the first road for those who sees China's rise as positive (the Optimists) and the second road for those who view it negatively (the Pessimists). The Optimists supports the reasoning that the rise of China creates more opportunity for both developed and developing countries through integration and interdependence, and the rise of China further provides an alternative model for developing countries, however the Pessimists' reasoning falls within the lines of negativity, portraying the rise of China is hazardous and it will create instability in the region as neighboring countries' fear will also increase alongside China's rising. The concept of "China threat" was then sprouted as justification for their negative perspective towards China's rise. The issue therefore led to the question of whether China's rise will be peaceful or not.
   On the regional and international level, China's progress is far recognized than its status as a developing country. China continues to be called a developing country because of its societal structure. In other words, to maintain China's identity, culture and its societal structure, China must accept its status as a developing country. However on the International arena, China already performs its capability that proves to the world that a developing country is powerful. China's growing influence in the region is well recognized. China's continuous engagement with the East Asian region and the global community through trade and other means of cooperation has driven China's reputation as a responsible power. On the other hand, the way other countries shift their attention to China, shows it all that China has something, something unique that catches the attention of everyone, and that uniqueness is its rising. What China cannot do in the past, it can do it now. This shift of new progress in its fast driven capacity and capability to do new things makes it true that China is rising. China's influence and growing strength is not only felt in the East Asian region; however it is felt globally, both by developing countries and the developed countries. China's power through its soft diplomacy in the form of aid, grants and scholarships, cultural exchanges, economic interdependence, and infrastructure developments has already been extended out from China's backyard to most developing countries in the world, to Africa, Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Asia-Pacific region, even to the developed EU and North America.
   It is true that China’s technology has rose. China is said to be a developing country and it's obvious that developing countries' economies tend to grow faster than that of the rich developed countries. China is not like Germany, USA, Japan or even South Korea who invented new innovation through a long process due to research for originality in knowledge. Developing countries including China can therefore easily invent another copy of that same product due to the fact that the knowledge was already provided by the developed countries. In this context, there is no need for developing countries to start all over again. This gives them the advantage to quickly produce more new products which increase production and leads to economic growth. To substantiate this argument, Michael Beckley argued on the same line by saying. “China and other developing countries, like Germany, Japan, and South Korea before it, can reap the “advantages of backwardness, “ adopting modern technologies and methods while skipping the long, arduous process of inventing them.” 1 To learn and make good use of the gained knowledge is important in that its limits the time period of searching for this cutting edge knowledge. China has been a good and fast learner in that it quickly engages itself with foreign technological ideas and converts them to their own set up. This contributed much to China's rapid progress in their production sector.
   On a more ideological perspective, China's rise has a strong link back to its historical times. China was once the center of ancient civilization with the country being called the Middle Kingdom “Zhong guo”. This is an identity that will always stick in the hearts and minds of the Chinese people. And to revive this identity is the work of the Chinese people alone and no one else. China's historical memories are also another driving force for China's progress today. Strong nationalism has held the Chinese people together in good faith that no more colonialism will intervene in Chinese society. This is what Scott refers to as the “face nationalism” which the Chinese people themselves concerned much about the image of their country2. They want other countries to respect their country. Only through this feeling, the Chinese people will feel that China has gained face in the International society. In order to regain that respect, the Chinese people have to work hard to ensure their country snaps recognition from the International community. This is what is evidently seen today. As China rises and become a great power, many countries tend to respect her.

Cited
1Michael Beckley (2011) China's Century? Why America's Edge willendure. International Security, Vol. 36, No. 3. p. 45
2David Scott (2007) China stands up: The PRC and the International System. p95.



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