The China Wave

The book puts forth that the rise of China today comprises three primary components: “rise of a civilizational state, a new model of development and a new political discourse” (p. 3). While discussing the civilizational state, the author argues that, “China’s rise represents the rise of a different type of country, and the major reason for China’s rise is its adherence to its own path of development, and the country has thus, on the one hand, learnt a lot from other countries and, on the other hand, given play to its own strengths and moved beyond the Western model, and its is the rise of a civilizational state which has amalgamated the world’s longest continuous civilization with a huge modern state” (p. 47). The author continues by saying that the Chinese model of development is basically an extension of the East Asian model of development (p. 83), and that Chinese political discourse can be defined as “great economic reform with lesser political reforms” (p. 111). Zhang concludes that the Chinese model of development is consistent and that there are major problems with the Western model of democracy; every country that has attempted to replicate this (including Japan, Europe, India, Eastern Europe, Thailand, Indonesia etc.) are all facing problems. The author fails to acknowledge the fact that the United States is the centre of the current financial crisis simply because it is at the centre of the global world, whilst China has managed to stay out of the crisis because it is still not totally integrated with the world. In addition, the author does not acknowledge the fact that the Chinese model of development is highly dependent on the Western and European markets. If these countries stop importing Chinese products due to economic hardships, the Chinese economy will face major problems. Zhang appears to be silent about the problems that the Chinese state is facing today. He also puts too much emphasis on the fact that the Chinese are ‘good people’ as they have a long history of culture and tradition. For example, in the case of the Sichuan earthquake, it was proudly reported that there was no looting; but this could also be explained by the fact that local governments would not have allowed the publication of any such information. In a state where the news of major issues like SARS can be controlled, then these are minor things. The author does not acknowledge the fact that Chinese aid to African nations is primarily in return for resources and oil, and that its non-interference in the domestic affairs of the African nations has harmed locals significantly. Meanwhile, the author’s comparisons of Deng Xiaoping to Mother Teresa, while discussing poverty eradication, is quite bizarre (p.128). The book is, to be fair, a good contribution to the existing literature on the rise of China. However, the major drawback is that, even though the author agrees at times that the Chinese model is not foolproof, he fails to discuss what the weaknesses are. Can the problems prove difficult for the Communist Party of China (CPC)? If there are indeed problems, what are the steps undertaken by the CPC to correct them? Simply arguing that China will have large problems because the state is huge (with a population of 1.3 billion), seems non-academic to me. With this logic one could argue that most of the countries of Africa, which have smaller populations, should be facing smaller problems. The author has also argued that the success of China can be measured by the successful execution of the Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai Expo, but ignores the fact that during these events the Chinese government exercised the most rigid control. The author further showcases a total amnesia about the Tibetan Uprising and the Xinjiang Riots. If the Chinese model of development is based on winning the hearts of the people, as the author argues, then the CPC appears to have failed to win the hearts of a major section of its population. Secondly, the numbers of demonstrations against state policies and atrocities have been on the increase in China, highlighting a major section of the population that is not content with the way the Chinese state functions. The book has been ranked in the top ten of most influential books in China. The reason for this success is obvious; there is not one section of the book that actually discusses the problems China faces. In fact, the book glorifies the achievements of China, which is a ‘story’ that the Chinese government would happily share with its people. And this is a sign of the great propaganda machinery in China. For example, the high speed railway is put forth as the benchmark of a modern state, whilst democracy is vehemently argued against. The one point of the book appears to be quite simple: ‘democracy’ is bad and the Chinese people should be ‘happy’ with the one-party rule.