This post is a bit longer than usual.
Ever since 2017, with Trump’s presidency, China has become the bad guy, or the terrible country: it has been accused of genocide, theft and espionage, aggressive global behavior, and so on and so on. And if anyone had any doubts, Joe Biden has reinforced the position that China is the enemy n°1 for the US. So now we don’t seem to find anything good in what they do. None, nothing, not at all.
Now I am not going to defend China, and say they are not authoritarian, they are not shrewd businessmen, and strategists. I am not qualified to weigh-in on this kind of debate. But there are things that I am truly puzzled about.
This same China has lifted over 600 million people out of poverty. It has renovated and advanced the country to the digital age. It has instituted many policies around social care, business enterprises, and trade. Meanwhile, it has had to manage 1.4 billion people!
China is accused of aggressive behavior on the world stage, and predatory business deals with the developing world. What the media never seems to bring up is that China has rarely attacked foreign countries in the past 2000 or so years. The histories of US, France, UK, the Netherlands, Spain, and certainly Germany are full of aggressive behaviors, including in the current century - Iraq in 2003. As for comparative predatory business deals, let’s not forget UK’s Opium wars on China, US’ blockade of Japan in the 19th century, and all the deals the US and the west made to subjugate the Asian and Latin American nations (cf, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins). And of course, let’s not ignore US’ weaponization of US$.
Now, I am not going through all the claims and grievances, nor am I claiming that China is innocent and everyone should flock to its policies. I wonder, though, where were the great supporters of democracy, when the Tienanmen events took place in 1989? Did they levy sanctions and embargos?
The bottom line is that China’s development in the past 50 years is a historical achievement, and proof of an incredible collective leadership and intelligence over this same period. Not everything is rosy in the country, nor fully sustainable. Furthermore, with Xi Jinping’s monopolisation of power, China’s leadership process may become corrupt and sclerosed. And the country’s current state is not strong nor established enough to weather such a debilitating event. But if you ever want to have a real impartial view of the country and its situation, you should read, Has China Won?, by Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean diplomat and scholar. Don’t worry, he is not claiming, nor is he predicting, China’s victory. The title is made intentionally provocative.
The real problem the West has with China seems to be that it cannot accept the country for what it has become, the second most powerful nation in the world. In particular, wanting a piece of the global leadership pie, that for a long time was concentrated in the hands of a select few nations, themselves having reached the level through aggression, predatory foreign and trade policies, and coercion.
Paris, June 12, 2023
Zeejay