Why Should we Fear China?

Is there need to fear the growing giant, before we fear we should be able to give a rational reason for why we have such fear.

Is China the friend who helps or the enemy that wants to rule the world?

There has been an escalation of fears regarding the intentions of China over the past few years with regards to their policies and global influence. The question is are these fears legitimate and how serious are they to the free world.

We need to have a deeper understanding of China to fully appreciate China’s intentions and how they plan to implement them, we also need to understand how China works today because in many respects the China that was brought into being my Chairman Mao is very different to the China of today.

China today is very different to when Chairman Mao was in power

What were some of the factors that influenced China and why did they make the decisions at the time that the modern China was being formed. Without going into detail America played an important roll in the decisions made by China under Chairman Mao who with his leaders of the time laid the foundation of modern China. America tried to influence the fledgling China at the time by trying to make the usual deal which very basically translates to “we will pay you a lot of money and give you legitimacy if you do as we tell you to!” The money and legitimacy is usually sufficient for a countries leaders to capitulate and accept America’s generous offer. However, China had been through years of colonialism and the leaders of the new country were simply not prepared to accept those terms, China did not want to shake off one colonial system simply to become the vassal of America.

America pushed China into the arm of Russia

America went back and forth supporting Mao and rejecting Jiang Kai-shek trying to persuade the Chinese leaders to accept their terms. In the end China refused the American terms and aligned themselves with Russia who at the time placed no terms on their aid and friendship. America angry that China would dare defy them finally decided to support Taiwan and Jiang Kai-shek.

In this way, America was responsible for China aligning with the USSR and becoming communist, but the Chinese communism was not the same as the Russian ideology. China had taken the ideals of Karl Marx but they added their own twist to the ideals and started to develop their own philosophy.

China is far less commonest and far more socialist!

Skip forward to China opening up to the West as they entered the WTO. At this point China realized they needed to make certain fundamental changes to their philosophy and even thought the CCP holds Marxism as the core of their philosophy it is clarified and is “Marxism with Chinese Characteristics”.

It is very important to note what these characteristics are. The Chinese are the first to acknowledge that there is not political system that fits China as a whole and they have had to make many changes along the way. While the CCP still retains its name as the Chinese Communist Party the political ideology of China is quite far from being Communist, it is referred to today as being a Socialist Society. Living in China it is apparent that the old idea of communism is long gone, with more millionaires and billionaires than the USA has, people do not live in fear or oppression in China. While the movement of people is tracked, you can find people from all over China living and thriving in the Tier 1 cities.

So if China aspires to be able to have a moderately wealthy society what does that mean for China and how do they achieve that goal. More importantly what does that mean for the rest of the world.

China needs thriving independent countries to achieve its goals!

China’s goal of a moderately wealthy society means that it wants to lift all its people out of abject poverty they want all Chinese people to have access to water, health care, education, shelter and food.

How do they plan to achieve this and maintain it?

Well China has realized that being closed to the world makes it impossible to achieve these goals, so they have opened their economy and the results have been incredibly positive. China is on track to achieve its goal of eradicating extreme poverty ahead of time and the roll out of economic benefits to all Chinese people is ongoing.

How did China get there and how are they going to maintain their goals? Well, the answer to that question is China has been able to leverage its countries resources to be able to trade with the rest of the world. Becoming the factory of the world China has been able to attract investment and benefit from the profits.

Western countries give aid with strings attached — China gives aid to help an economy thrive!

How does China plan to maintain its growth? China has learned that it cannot survive on its own, China needs the rest of the world to be able to have markets and outlets for its goods and services. For China a prosperous trading partner is important so they are looking at developed economies as well as developing economies to be able to trade with.

How does China engage emerging economies as trading partners? The Western approach has been “We will buy your goods and invest in your country if you do as we tell you to!”. China has a different approach “We don’t have the right to interfere in your sovereign affairs but we see you as a trading partner and investment opportunity!”

African leaders have commented on a few occasions that they are more willing to accept China who comes with no strings attached than the Western Countries that attach strings to everything.

China wants strong trading partners

China does not have a world domination plan, in fact China is quite strict about their reach. Chinese citizens should have Chinese heritage and trading partners don’t need to change the way they rule their country to trade with China.

So the question posed in the title, “Why should we fear China?” Means exactly that, there is no reason to fear China in terms of them wanting to take over the world and become masters of the world. This is not in their game plan. They don’t want to make the world communist, they know communism doesn’t work so well and they have adapted.

Its time for the world to realis that China is not an existential threat, China wants its people to have a good life and is quite happy that the rest of the world wants the same. There are no hidden agenda and no secret plan to dominate.

Is China perfect? No the CCP recognizes that there is still much work t do and many way they need to adapt to maintain their growth into the future. China, like any country makes mistakes but they acknowledge them and look for ways to improve.

China isn’t perfect but it is ready to change improve!

This has been a very quick look at China, there are many interesting and important details about the rise of China that can be discussed in later articles, the goal in this article was to raise awareness that the traditional view of China is outdated and misinformed.

Please comment, there is bound to be some lively debate on this topic, the hope is that it generates discussion.