GEOPOLITICS
CHINESE MILITARY AND ECONOMIC POWER
On April 28, China completed the first stage of the project to create its own space
station. Indeed, China has put into orbit the first Tiangong module – which means “Heavenly
Palace” – from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on Hainan Island. Taikonauts are
expected to inaugurate it next June.
This success is indicative of the technological and military power, but also of China’s
economic power. Indeed, few powers can brag about being so advanced in the conquest of
space (it should be noticed that China is the first country to have succeeded a mission on the
Far Side of the Moon).
According to Max Weber, in Chapter 1 of his book entitled Economy and Society, power can
be defined as "Any chance of making one's own will triumph against the resistance of others."
This power can be divided and combine different aspects. As the American geopolitician
Joseph Nye says in Bound to Lead, power can be a soft power (power of seduction,
persuasion), a hard power (imposing and enforcing one’s will by force most of the time) or a
Smart Power, a term coined by Suzanne Nossel that would be the right combination of Hard
and Soft Power.
It is undeniable that China has certain attributes of power and proudly displays them. But
wouldn't having titanic projects such as the New Silk Roads or wanting to create its own
space station, like the USSR, mask China's inability to honor the other parts with which a
state considering itself a power must contend?
In the past, China has known greatness both on the military and economic levels. But it
has not been able to maintain it and has experienced some mistakes that it must erase in
order to be able to renew its power (I).
China has a glorious military and economic past. China was able to demonstrate many
innovations and was able to establish its supremacy, especially in the maritime field. Indeed,
in 1405, Admiral Zheng He travelled the oceans and at that time China had 2700 patrol ships,
400 warships and 400 cargo ships.
Comparatively, in 1423, the serenity of Venice was at the height of its power. In the speech
on the state of the city that he delivers, the doge Tommaso Mocenigo counted 3000 merchant
ships and 300 military vessels. Thus, China has a number of vessels equivalent to those of
Venice and a larger military fleet of 100 ships. Moreover, according to Angus Maddison in
his book The World Economy: Historical Statistics (2004), China trade was flourishing in
1300. China is the world's leading economic power in terms of GDP per population and has
many riches such as silk, china or tea. China inspires the West. In his book Le Devisement du
monde, Marco Polo's stay in the Mongol Empire, especially China, of Kubilai Khan makes
Europeans dream at that time.
, But China’s military and economic power was crushed by the weight of colonization. Then
the mistakes of Maoism did not help China to get out of this situation : a power in agony
which needs a great return on the international scene.
Indeed, China suffered many setbacks from the Western powers, which could take the forms
of armed conflicts such as the two opium wars of 1839-1842 and 1856-1860. Or annexations
following military defeats such as that of the island of Formosa by Japan in 1895. 16 Chinese
ports fell under European jurisdiction and became trading posts. Economically, China was in
the worst shape of its history, as the Taiping revolt (1850-1864) paralyzed the country for
almost 15 years and, like many revolts, it revealed a serious food and economic crisis for the
country.
But desire to revive Chinese power emerged with the Boxer Rebellion in 1901, resulting, of
course, in a Chinese defeat but it opened the way to many reforms to “restore the power of our
country” ( Empress Cixi ). It is in this perspective that the CCP took power in 1949 and
created the PRC. From the start, China has asserted its military power through annexations
such as that of Tibet in 1950, or territorial disputes such as those of Aksai Chin and Arunashal
Pradesh with India, which have still not been settled. Moreover, thanks to a different
economic model, China can act as a spokesman for the ⅓ world, notably at the Bandung
Conference.
But this is without counting the Maoist mistakes that follow the same mistakes of the USSR,
such as the “Great Leap Forward” ( 1958-1960) or the “Cultural Revolution” (1966-1976)
where millions of Chinese died of starvation and were persecuted by the Red Guards. When
Mao died in 1976, China was one of the poorest countries in the world, with 80% of the
population living below the poverty line.
However, since the end of the 1970s, China’s opening up and its integration into
globalization have become privileged paths to power.
Agriculture started the liberalization of the Chinese economy and thus preceded the industrial
sector in its metamorphosis Thanks to a new concept (the Socialist Market Economy), China,
after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, and thanks to Deng Xiaoping, gradually opened and
liberalized its economy, starting with agriculture. This first phase of opening favored wheat
imports. These regularly exceeded 10 Mt, and even 15 Mt in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991 and
1992, often making China the world's leading importer. The decollectivization of land began
in the late 1970s. Agricultural production was freed from the centralized framework through
the "household responsibility" system: land held by village communities was leased to
farming families. The income from production and the choice of crops were now entirely up
to the families. In fact, this policy resulted in a diversification of production and an active
search on the part of farmers to optimize yields and profits. Overall, the decollectivization of
land allowed for the liberation of China's agricultural potential.
Thus, from 1976, the beginning of liberalization, wheat and rice production continued to
increase and, above all, grew faster than the population, allowing for greater per capita
availability
In addition, the effort to integrate into globalization involves the opening of SEZs such as the
one in Shenzhen and an opening to FDI. Beijing has tried to keep control of the opening of the
Chinese economy and wants to avoid the fate of the USSR due to Perestroika, which is
perceived as a real disaster, A.Zinoviev will write his book Katastroika to show it. Thus, the
economy remains a planned economy with a great control of FDI through mixed companies
or joint-ventures. Moreover, China has the status of a developing country and has special
treatment to block access to foreign investment in certain sectors such as banking and finance.
