| ID | 110158 |
| Title Proper | Confronting a powerful China with western characteristics |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Kurth, James |
| Publication | 2012. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | The rapid rise of Chinese economic and military power has produced the most fundamental change in the global system since the end of the Cold War, and it poses vital questions about China's future direction. Many Western analysts argue that China's great power will cause it to become more like the West, i.e., like Western great powers. Other Western analysts believe that China will continue to be the same, i.e., like the China of the past few decades. An alternative interpretation, however, is that China's new power will enable it to become even more Chinese than it is now, i.e., to become more like the traditional and imperial China that existed before the Western intrusions of the 19th century. This China was the "Central State" of a distinctive Chinese world order, operating with distinctive conceptions about diplomatic relations, military strategy, and economic exchange. However, the new China will be unlike the old China in at least two important ways. It will be a naval, and not just a land, power, and it will be a financial, and not just a trading, power. In other words, it will be a powerful China with Western characteristics. As a formidable naval and financial power, China will present fundamental challenges to the United States and to both the long-standing U.S. security order in the Western Pacific and the long-standing "Washington Consensus" about the global economic order.
There was once a great power, one so great that its power not only reached all around the world, but it was recognized as the world's leading power. Its economic practices, political system, and conceptions of international law provided the models and set the standards for numerous other powers. And at the core of its power, and backing up its models, was a special form of military power-the greatest navy in the world-and a special form of economic power, the greatest financial system in the world. That great power was Great Britain, that navy was the Royal Navy, that financial system was centered in the City of London, and that era was just a century ago. However, the greatness of British power had been established almost a century before that, after Britain's victory in the Napoleonic Wars. That victory had largely been won with the advantages provided by the Royal Navy and the Bank of England. |
| `In' analytical Note | Orbis Vol. 56, No.1; Winter 2012: p.39-59 |
| Journal Source | Orbis Vol. 56, No.1; Winter 2012: p.39-59 |
| Key Words | China ; Chinese Economy ; Military Power ; Cold War ; Diplomatic Relations ; Military Strategy ; Financial Power ; United States ; England |