The Chinese Conundrum: Are We Soon to Be Faced with the ‘Asian Question’?

“China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world.”—Napoléon Bonaparte

China being a giant is not a state-premeditated contrivance; rather, an inalienable existential state-of-being ordained by nature itself. Neither the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC), nor any of the world’s other superpowers (the United States of America and the Russian Federation), not even the international community as a whole, could alter this reality without assuming the Herculean task of redefining and restructuring—if not reconstructing—the twenty-first century experience of the ‘human species’ in its entirety.

Ladies and gentlemen, China does not entertain a ‘butterfly effect’, no! It entertains an effect of another dimensional magnitude, indubitably real despite how mythical it may sound: a ‘dragon effect’. For when China flaps her wings, the earth’s tectonic plates shake.

Here are some noteworthy facts about China:

China has a population of 1.44 billion (worldometer) approximately 18.22% of total world population.
“As of January 2021, the Asian nation owns $1.095 trillion, or about 4%, of the $28 trillion U.S. national debt, which is more than any other foreign country except Japan.” (Seth)
China’s share of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (adjusted for purchasing-power-parity (PPP)) weighted 18.34% in 2020 (Statista)
China is “the largest recipient of global FDI in 2020 [$163 billion (Reuters Staff)], and so far in 2021.” (Yu)
“China’s FDI stock in Africa totaled $110 billion in 2019, contributing to over 20% of Africa’s economic growth.” (Yu)
Chinese active presence in Antarctica as well as in the Arctic is matched/surpassed only by that of the United States of America and the Russian Federation.
As of 15 May 2021, China has caught up in the race for space with the US and Russia—thereby cementing her status as the world’s third superpower. [see “Congratulations China! Officially a ‘Superpower’”]
China is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
China is a member of the BRICS association.
Since 2013, China has undertaken the Belt Road Initiative (BRI), an overland and maritime expansive endeavor that would consolidate China’s global economic and political presence and influence—namely over international trade—stretching from Asia to Europe (Chatzky &. McBride).
According to U.S. News, China ranks third globally in terms of technological expertise (ranked by perception). (U.S. News Staff)
China has “the largest armed forces in the world by active duty military personnel, with about 2.19 million active soldiers.” (Statista) [note: the number is rounded-up from 2.185]
“China’s emissions grew by 1.7% [in 2020] from the previous year to the equivalent of 14,400 million metric tons of CO2 (my formatting).” (Bloomberg)

Heeding the above-mentioned facts, one is inclined to declare that it is commonsensical to recognize China as an elemental global actor and indispensable nexus sustaining the experience we refer to as ‘globalization’ and/or ‘global integration’. Thus, it necessarily follows that a ‘universal stake’ in China has been cultivated over the past few decades. A stake of this nature, universal, blurs the dividing line between state sovereignty and the collective interest of mankind; hence, inadvertently positions China in a confrontational stance with the rest of the international community.

China’s growing assertiveness over the years has only exacerbated the international community’s wariness toward its domestic conducts and policies, whence the rationale that every undertaking falls under state sovereignty no longer suffice to mitigate global concerns.

Last month, we saw the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s jaundiced at the EU’s criticism of China’s human rights violations—particularly the persecution of the minority Uighur Muslim community in Xinjiang—; lashing back in response to the EU’s parliament imposed sanctions: “Our European friends know what is genocide,” at the Munich Security Conference; while making the argument that trade-cooperation should not be politicized (Lau).

President Biden has recently directed the U.S. intelligence community to reinvestigate the origins of the COVID pandemic and report back a ‘definite conclusion’, noting that

“his administration takes seriously the possibility that the deadly virus was accidentally leaked from a lab, in addition to the prevailing theory that it was transmitted by an animal to humans outside a lab.” (Shear, et al.)

The question is: what is the real stimulus fomenting this masqueraded antagonism?

Sieving through the multilayered perturbation that entails questions of human rights as well as a wide range of other legitimately pressing concerns, we would undoubtedly infer that China finds itself at an utter disjunction with the international community with respect to its ‘power-source of choice’. Hitherto, the Chinese manufacturing apparatus relies heavily on coal; which makes point 13, of the aforementioned facts about China, the chief issue of contention, as it showcases that China is the world’s biggest polluter.

The truth of the matter is this:

It sounds a bit paradoxical—even listening to the very thought in one’s own head—that the world’s current largest ‘communist’ country is the beating heart of international trade—which is the governing-system that free trade is a subsystem of—and, that in turn is the impetus for capitalism (i.e. optimal maximization of profits). One also fails to fathom how communist China is the largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment [emphasis added]—the greatest machination, the Excalibur, of imperialist capitalism (according to communist philosophy). To add a cherry on top, the main catalyst or pull factor for FDI into China is, inter alia, cheap labor, that guarantees economies of scale in a timely manner for immigrating manufacturers. Irony abounds.

Nevertheless, the feud ensued between the West and China when the former started recommending, perhaps occasionally demanding, that the latter undertakes domestic reforms. The world’s great powers are not ignorant. What has been stated in the introductory paragraph herein does not constitute flash news for them—a mere statement of fact, that is. They are fully aware that the Chinese global input can never be supplanted much less eliminated out of the equation over night; all the while being equally cognizant of the eventuality that, should China maintain its position vis-á-vis social evolution and climate change, it shall inevitably face demise.

That being said, China’s standing (at all levels) cannot be left for caprice, luck, or even fate!

China has to forsake her ‘power-source of choice’ for a cleaner one, despite the hefty cost resulting from such transition in the short-term.

About three centuries heretofore, Europe was faced with the ‘Eastern Question’ with respect to then a gradually weakening and unstable Ottoman Empire—anticipating its inevitable disintegration.

Could the world suffer an ‘Asian Question’—in reference to China—with similar scope?

In truth, China is TOO-GIGANTIC to be ALLOWED to fail!

Reference

Bloomberg. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-05/china-s-emissions-increased-by-1-7-in-2020-report.

Chatzky, Andrew, and James McBride. “China’s Massive Belt and Road Initiative.” Council on Foreign Relations, 28 Jan. 2020, www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative. Accessed 5 June 2021.

“China Population (2020).” Worldometer – Real Time World Statistics, www.worldometers.info/world-population/china-population/.

“China: Share of Global Gross Domestic Product 2009-2025.” Statista, 13 Oct. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/270439/chinas-share-of-global-gross-domestic-product-gdp/.

Lau, Stuart. “China Tells Europe: You Know What a Genocide Looks Like.” POLITICO, 25 May 2021, www.politico.eu/article/china-tells-europe-you-know-what-a-genocide-looks-like/.

Seth, Shobhit. “Why China Buys U.S. Debt With Treasury Bonds.” Investopedia, www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/040115/reasons-why-china-buys-us-treasury-bonds.asp.

Shear, Michael D., et al. “Biden Orders Intelligence Inquiry Into Origins of Virus.” The New York Times – Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos, 28 May 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/05/26/us/politics/biden-coronavirus-origins.html.

Staff, Reuters. “China Was Largest Recipient of FDI in 2020: Report.” U.S, 24 Jan. 2021, www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-fdi-idUSKBN29T0TC.