What is the role of China in INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

China is a notable East Asian country that has defied all odds to rise in international politics and rival world superpowers, especially the United States. In a closed-door meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and President Xi Jinping of China, Putin insinuated that Russia would start using the Yuan as a foreign exchange currency between it and America, as well as Latin America (Zakaria 2023). The assertion affirmed that the Chinese Yuan was growing stronger than the U.S. dollar and that America’s nemesis were taking advantage of the opportunity to weaken the dollar further. In an isolated incident, the U.S. blamed China for COVID-19, and in recent times, China’s threat to Australia faced opposition from the United States.

The different scenarios reveal that Chinas rise to power already makes the United States comfortable. As a result, conflicts manifest over socio-cultural, political, and economic issues. In hindsight, China’s rise will cause a shifting balance of power in international politics and there will be a series of disagreements over governance, political philosophies, use of military power, cultural expansion, and economic growth, although the differences will not become so intense or inevitable.

            China has developed into a country of interest within a short period. Its political landscape is shaped by the Confucian ideology and it refuses to embrace western philosophies because the country needs to remain relevant. The country’s economy is another critical indicator of success with a Gross Domestic Product of US$18.321T, which is the second largest in the world (China GDP). The 2022 statistics further reveal that the country has an expansive military infrastructure capable of contending world superpowers. China is also one of the world’s best education and tourism destinations. This helps it acquire positive publicity as perceptions continually change about the country.

Besides using such platforms for socio-cultural advancement, the China Belt and Road initiative has taken over Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, making it easy for the Chinese culture and language to spread (Liu 2022, 18). Several changes happening in China pose security threat for the United States, which has always held a position of power ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall. China is an aggressive rival that does not have a clear stance on democracy, which the United States supports. If China uses its political influence, socio-cultural standing, economic stability, and technological prowess, it might render the United States irrelevant. In response, the U.S strives to maintain is position amid differences, although every president of the United States handles China dissimilarly.

            A slight background of China provides an overview into what shaped the country into a nation of sporadic growth. Monarchs who controlled China admirably for over two thousand years viewed the nation as a critical player in world politics. Zhongguo, or the Middle Kingdom as China refers to itself, is not just a geographical notion (Council on Foreign Relations 2023). It suggests that China is the globe’s cultural, geopolitical, and commercial hub. The laws, values, and structures that govern world peace and cooperation are significantly influenced by the Sino-centrist mindset in the East Asian powerhouse. Still, for at least a century, Chinese prominence on the world stage declined after the fall of imperial China throughout the 1800s and early 1900s (Halsey 2015, 21). In the last two decades, China has resurfaced with the world’s second most significant economy and an extraordinary military.

The balance of power theory best applies in this case because it establishes that countries secure success and survival by gaining sufficient military power to suppress others Rosecrance (2006, 9). After the pandemic, China displayed an array of artillery, including spaceships to attract media attention and send a message to America. It threatened to attack Australia and warned the United States to avoid any political interventions concerning its relationship with Taiwan. It became apparent that China was defending its position as a world superpower and a critical decision-maker in the Eurasian region. In ‘Managing U.S.,-China Strategic Competition,’ the researchers confirmed that power dominance caused the rivalry between China and the United States, although the conflict would never translate into a Cold War (Feng and He 2018, 31).

The scholars explain that the foundation of the Cold War was an ideological struggle while the current scuffle is informed by differences in developmental agenda. Military power plays a significant role of protecting China against threats, which explains why the East Asian country does not refrain from using the media to remind the world of its position in terms of defense. Chinas military growth generates a security dilemma because nobody knows when it might attack the United States or its rivals. A significant concern is that the United States ‘retaliation could turn tragic.

            Strategic competition equally manifests through economic power and foreign policies. Initially, a popular perception was that China manufactured counterfeit products. The idea changed when some American multinationals started manufacturing commodities in China at low costs to make more profits. China targeted similar markets with the same products at even lower costs and attained market dominance. Today, China advances its policy to such countries by promoting its culture and language, although fears are that the country advances neocolonialism.  Sou et al. (2022, 879) and Crewe and Fernando (2006, 43) reveal how developing countries are quick to embrace their Southern counterparts who purport to eliminate the colonial mindset while providing aid and engaging in trade. Sometimes the resistance breeds racism but popularizes China, which emerges as a financier of projects through donor aid and lending.

The West through the International Monetary Fund initially funded such projects and critics believed that they created loopholes for racism and imperialism to thrive. Moorsom (2010, 361) mentions that African countries can choose to borrow from China and evade hefty taxes imposed by the West and control from the World Bank. The paradigm shift gives more power to China, enabling it to make critical decisions about Africa. Already, most of the roads constructed in the continent are done by China, which means that the Chinese language, culture, and the Yuan continue to dominate in Africa. The differences in ideologies or developmental agenda between China and the United States pose limited risk. It is unlikely that the rest of the world should fear a Cold War because of such disparities. Instead, both will advance in different areas to maintain the power they have accrued over the years.

            Evidence shows that China is unapologetically taking control over countries that the United States initially dominated. What is more, it has conquered the Asian-Pacific region and it liaises with countries that pose a threat to the United States. For instance, Hilary (2010, 81) reveals that most African countries are indebted to the west and the International Monetary Fund uses the opportunity to suppress them and allow western dominance. As such, they feel more accommodated by China, which places less stringent measures on them. However, there is skepticism in the part of China because nobody knows its long-term intentions.

The west feels that it is taking advantage of Africa’s vulnerability to promote imperialism. According to Escobar (1992, 20), the new social revolution allows dominant entities to institute their political agenda because the susceptible group sees an opportunity for alternative growth. In return, the west is tainted as racist and ill-intentioned. Bandyopadhyay (2019, 327) reveals that most affected countries become tired of carrying the burden of suppression by white regimes and opt for association with rival camps.

China is quick to take advantage of such opportunities because it needs many countries to support it and use the Yuan. If it becomes more powerful than the United States, the dollar will continue to grow weak, as China rises to dominance. If China takes control of the countries the U.S. initially dominated and the dollar gets weak, it is unlikely that a war would ensue. Instead, the U.S. might set ups structures that further weaken the Yuan or make its unstable and incapable of being the choice for foreign exchange over the long-term.

            The military, policies, and economy are areas that China leads today, yet the most significant of all is technology. Ferreria da Silva et al. (2014, 40) explains that critical issues affecting society today include food security, genetically modified crops, the digital divide, and sustainability. Technology is at the center of such issues, and China remains the world’s innovation hub. In the past, the United States encouraged Chinese international students to apply for jobs in the country because they offered sufficient support for its technological infrastructure. Due to geopolitical shifts, China’s educational system and employment setting grew popular and several foreigners took advantage of the affordable educational opportunities.

Its students no longer needed to leave for the U.S. for education and employment. In essence, China retained talented and competent individuals who helped its economy grow through digital migration. Patel (2019) mentions that the opportunity to decolonize higher education placed countries in a pedestal and challenged traditions that were only embraced by the West in the past. The paradigm shift created a level of discomfort for countries that undermined China’s potential. China continues to shape its educational system and makes its attractive to masses that learn new things about the country.

Most of their misconceptions are overwritten by facts and some are starting to believe in Chinese ideologies. Technological advancement and dominance might not create a security threat unless its proceeds interfere with the democratic principles of the United States (Roland 2021, 1). For instance, during the Trump election, Russia was accused of interfering with the process, which caused their favorite candidate to assume power.

The United States and China might only engage in a war if such happens and leadership goes to a president who lacks a development agenda for America, but instead favors personal interests in pursuit of foreign direct investment. Another reason is that both countries are tech giants and the emergence of the 5G technology became very controversial between 2019 and 2020 (Friis and Lysne 2021, 1186). Still, no tangible reason exists to cause war between the two countries over technology.

            The power transition theory of realism best explains the relationship between the United States and China. It insinuates that a state attains hegemonic power before another great country challenges the nation (Taylor Fravel 2010, 507). Often, the challenge causes war because the transition is difficult. The realism theory unfolds in the relationship between China and the United States as each strives to prove dominant even in the infrastructural space. The China Belt and Road Initiative run concurrently with America’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, although the latter first instituted its projects (Rolland 2017, 1). An emerging concern is that China’s initiative is recent, but more popular among resource-rich countries.

China knows that most of the targeted nations cannot afford to repay the loans used on the construction projects. Most will likely repay using natural resources or by allowing China to own shares in the infrastructure. Such transactions differ with U.S. standards because the United States believes in loan-based transactions and the constructions are costlier than the ones run by their Chinese counterparts.

The United States is concerned over the growing Chinese dominance and feels that it needs to reclaim the position it initially took by defending developing countries and intervening in the Chinese-Taiwan relations. Kastner (2008, 786) believes that China should be stopped by a more powerful entity because it will start suppressing its beneficiaries through military force, as it does with Taiwan. As the theory suggests, an entity that was initially powerful loses some of its authority to the greater counterpart (Grosse, Gamso, and Nelson 2021, 6). Hence, the U.S. might in the future lack the capability to correct China because the country is moving fast and strategically. In such a context, a war is likely to emerge if the United States feels threatened by China’s expansive road projects that equally expand its military activities to U.S.-territories.

            The type of leader in power influences the U.S.-China relationships. Trump and Obama approached issues differently and so does Biden. Democratic leaders extend an olive branch to China because they believe in collective development and collaborations. Their radical counterparts attack China not realizing that the latter’s history shaped it and made the country overly aggressive. China’s ascent in the last twenty years has altered the political landscape of the world more drastically than any other individual movement.

China quickly changed its economy from minimal production to a frontrunner in cutting-edge technology after joining the World Trade Organization in December 2001 (World Politics Review 2023). Later, it changed foreign relations alongside global supply chains, using its achievements to advance to the position of leading economic and developmental partner for developing nations throughout Africa, Asia, and South America. Due to China’s background, it is unlikely that the country would relent in the phase of an attack. China will continue defending its position and might never allow any other economy to replace it (Deng 2008, 17).

            In summary, the strained relationship between China and the United States is rooted in differences in opinions. Both trade in almost similar products, but their approaches to policy, politics, and military differ. Notably, the countries can find a common ground and trade together even if they have different interests. They must focus on issues such as counterterrorism, food security, and infrastructural development since each has something unique to offer. Nobody should undermine their battle for supremacy since it could cause a third World War. However, if the differences are handled competently, they will not become intense since each will enjoy sufficient opportunities for cultural, technological, political, and economic expansion without the fear of attack over rivalry.   

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