CHINA THE 21ST CENTURY HEGEMON

CHINA

THE 21^ST CENTURY HEGEMON

Each century has its heroes and villains. The 21^st Century

has seen the rise of its first Villain -

A Hegemonic behemoth of a nation - CHINA.

Backed by overflowing coffers due to 5 decades of economic growth, China has developed economic & muscular heft. It uses both these to pursue its hegemonic ambitions.

 

China shares a land border with 13 nations & the 14th is China's client state Pakistan, through the Pak Occupied Kashmir. Still China has border disputed with 23 nations. China used its muscular heft to good effect and forced these nations to fall in line. China used specious arguments of historical (more mythical, than factual) ownership, to lay claim on territories of its neighbours. Those who resisted were forced to submit. Use of economics and military as weapons of intimidation got the Chinese what they coveted - LAND.

The smaller nations capitulated meekly and those who dared to stand up to China faced economic bullying and military pressure. They saw their trade dry up, political unrest inside their borders, constant small scale border disputes where their small armies were pitted against the Red Army. China has used wealth generated by capitalism & the use of brute force of communism to fashion a foreign policy that's aimed at one goal - creation of a superpower. Now ambitions of being a super power are good and might even be appreciable, but growing at the cost of others, preying on those weaker nations, does China, no credit.

Today China has only two friends - North Korea & Pakistan. These two are rogue nations that grace the bottom of every developmental, human resource parameter. These nuclear armed nations depend on China for their daily survival. North Korea & Pakistan are one of the biggest sources of unrest and possible nuclear flashpoints. China's choice of friends say a lot about its character as a nation. China's growth could have been benign and a stabilizing force in a tumultuous world. But China chose to go the other way, it chose unrest and attrition as its default setting.

But before we decide to condemn Chinese policy of "Land Grab", I would like to put forth a different perspective as to why China chose an adversarial model of foreign policy.

The answer may well lie in China's recent history. The dawn of the 20^th century saw rise of Communism and Mao Zedong. He led the Chinese Communist Party to a bloody war to overthrow the ruling Chiang Kai-shek led KMT or the Nationalist Kuomintang Party. This was a long and bloody war that saw rise of Mao as the undisputed leader of the communist party and the decimation & exile of Chiang Kai-shek with his KMT to Taiwan. During this decade long war China had no time to settle border disputes. After establishment of Mao as Chairman, the prevalent theory in the CCP was - Since Marxism did not recognize nation states therefore any border dispute was immaterial. If the neighbouring state was communist so ceding any territory to the neighbour was not an issue since the nation state will eventually dissolve and make national boundaries irrelevant. However if the state was not communist (red) then any ceding of territory by China will be seen as weakness. CCP's one-dimensional view was further corrupted by the total lack of any concept of modern nation states & their territorial importance. What they had was a confusing mix of utopian Marxism inspired ideas & sporadic sense of reluctance of display of any weakness to the enemy.

穷则搁置争议，共同开发；达则自古以来，神圣不可侵犯

When Poor We shall Put Aside the Dispute and Cooperate in Development; When Rich We Shall Insist the Territories Belong to China Since the Ancient Time , Then They Are Sacred and Inviolable 

This has become the main principle guiding China in resolution of territorial disputes between China & its neighbours. After Mao's death Deng Xiaoping became Chairman. He quickly realized the inherent weaknesses riddling the Chinese nation. He added two new dimensions to China's policy -

1.    韬光养晦 or Hide One's Capabilities and Bide One' s Time

2.    搁置争议，共同开发 or (in respect of disputed territory) the principle of Putting Aside the Dispute and Cooperating in Development

Over the last 3 decades, this approach helped China grow strong (economically & militarily). Now when its strong, China is simply doing what it had wanted to do. Gobble up territory under imaginary & often mythical assumptions. Like China's claim over Vietnam or South Korea, (which were once many hundreds of years back under Chinese rule). China's claim over major part of the South China Sea is partly based on the fact that its named South CHINA Sea. It would be funny, were it not so dangerous.

Now that we begin to understand why China is getting into disputes with its neighbours we can look at some of the disputes that China has with 23 nations -

Listed below are just some of the disputes that China has created with its neighbours -

Keeping in mind the Chinese principle -

"穷则搁置争议，共同开发；达则自古以来，神圣不可侵犯"

One can begin to understand the Chinese mind and use it to our advantage in resolution of border disputes with the People's Republic of China. Any show of attempted reconciliation towards China will be construed as weakness. Conversely a show of strength will bring into play Deng Xiaoping's second principle and push China towards the negotiating table.

Nudging China towards a responsible role as global power, is India's responsibility.This in my humble opinion, is the only way, India can deal with China and come away a winner from the negotiating table.

Vineet Saxena

(@vineet_24)