The Philippines and the United States signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) on April 28. This allows the US to establish military bases in the Philippines. This pact seems like a win-win strategy for both countries: For the Philippines, it is a great chance to boost the defense capabilities of its armed forces. It has long sought diplomatic and military support amid a territorial dispute with China. Meanwhile, the US may envisage it as an opportunity to keep China in check. By the same token, US President Barack Obama has publicly encouraged Japan to exercise the right of collective self-defense and thrown his support behind the country in its ongoing territorial dispute with China over the Senkaku Islands/Diaoyu Islands, as they are known in Japan and China respectively. This has aroused China’s strong opposition. With the world’s largest population and now the largest trading nation globally, it is no wonder China has now became a force to be reckoned with. Moreover, China has also been emerging as a major determinant of global affairs: the US, the number one superpower, feels keenly the need to restrain China’s power and has now swung into action to support neighboring countries under the guise of diplomatic cooperation. In what respect then can China be an influential superpower? The following are four reasons why we should pay attention to China as an emerging global power.

1. Global Peace: The Only Power to Control North Korea

North Korea, as it is commonly known as, is a poorly-managed country with a dictatorial regime that engages in the systematic violation of human rights and continually provokes its neighbors by its insistence on conducting nuclear tests. It is regarded as a big threat to regional peace because of the size of its military forces. Yet, while most countries in the world have ostracized North Korea, it still has a powerful ally that keeps it from being completely isolated: China.
China has been in a special relationship with North Korea since 1949, when North Korean communists provided support and a strategic base for the Chinese communists. China reciprocated with a massive military intervention during the Korean War, saving Kim Il-sung’s regime from collapse following his invasion of the South. As its closest communist ally, China has stood by North Korea, lending a hand when needs be. Last February, for example, the UN Human Rights Council drew up a 374-page report on North Korea’s human rights abuses and sent it to the UN Security Council. It includes a recommendation that the country’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for trial. But China, a permanent member of UN Security Council and thus holding a power of veto, dismissed the report, reducing hopes that the case will be taken to the ICC.
China is often thought of as a major obstacle whenever the international community tries to impose any sanctions on North Korea. At the same time, however, it is regarded as the only country that can restrain North Korea’s brazen acts. It is evident that China is facing huge international pressure to play a key role in maintaining world peace by keeping North Korea’s threats in check: Since North Korea’s first conducted nuclear tests in 2006, China has shown its disapproval, saying it always supports the stability of the entire Korean peninsula. North Korea ultimately ignored China’s opposition, but for the moment, there is no other country likely to influence North Korea’s decisions as China is believed to do: Last April, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, as a last resort, called Chinese President Xi Jinping to ask him to dissuade North Korea from carrying out its fourth nuclear test.
Despite its international troubles, China, of course, has its own reasons to protect North Korea. First, geostrategically, North Korea is situated at the center of five major economic powers in Asia: China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan. North Korea is also known to be abundant in natural resources. China, North Korea’s closest ally, may take advantage of them at low cost. Second, its closeness to North Korea gives China’s power in international society. North Korea is the means whereby China can keep South Korea in check, as well as the US, which is to South Korea what China is to North Korea.
The interactions between China and North Korea are firmly based on the Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty that was signed on July 11, 1961. It stipulates that China is pledged to immediately render military and other assistance by all means to its ally against any outside attack. It is automatically renewed every 20 years unless there is any demand for its modification or expiration. China’s state-run CCTV reported in 2011 that the treaty would be valid until 2021. However, the question of what position China will take on North Korea afterward may be asked. As China’s economic power grows, it occupies a more important position for defending global peace. Judging by the fact that it is expressing clearer opposition to North Korea’s nuclear testing than before, China seems to be well aware of its growing responsibility.

2. Tapping into Africa’s Natural Resources

Compared to the scale of China’s development, it has few natural resources. According to the Energy Information Administration, China is now the world’s largest net importer of petroleum, having overtaken the US, while its domestic oil reserves are not sufficient to meet its needs. However, China appears to have found a way to manage the crisis: It has set about tapping into a huge repository of natural resources, namely Africa.
Over several years, China has built itself up as a number one trading partner with African countries. In fact, it was quite easy for China to overtake the traditional partners of Africa countries, European states: Unlike some European countries, China never interferes in Africa’s political affairs or its economic systems. In addition, China’s investment has been extensive and bold, apparently undertaken without fear of the risks involved: China has provided low-interest loans to the governments of many African countries, built up considerable infrastructure, such as roads, airports, housing, schools, and hospitals, and even written off the equivalent of more than $1 billion in debt. Naturally, most African countries suffering from financial difficulties could not resist China’s overtures. Furthermore, unlike most of Africa’s traditional partners, China had never been involved in colonial relationships on the continent, which contributed to its success in Africa without arousing antipathy. Rather, China provided Africa with an opportunity to break free from relationships with former colonial powers
Now China has become a developer of Africa, transcending its trade partnership relations. For example, Sudan was not an oil producer until 1998 when China began investing in its nascent oil industry. Sudan has turned into a large oil producing country, producing half a million barrels of crude oil a day. In addition, more than 60% of oil production of Sudan is exported to China. Such an example represents what we refer to as “Chinafrica.” Today Africa cannot dream of economic growth without China.
Recently the Chinese government has made a lot of efforts to consolidate the trust between it and Africa: Last May Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made a visit to four African countries. During his tour, he underlined the Sino-African friendship, vowing to help build a pan-African railway with “no strings” attached. China seems to be paying careful attention to building up a good image by presenting itself as a helpful partner.
The US and Japan are making efforts to keep China from being Africa’s sole trading partner: President Obama promised to invest $16 billion and offer military assistance during his African tour in June 2013. The US was Africa’s biggest trading partner until 2009 before China took the lead. Japan, another major trading partner of Africa, is also seeking ways to increase its presence there: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a $32 billion aid package in May 2013. For the moment, however, it seems impossible for any other country to catch up with the scale of China’s investment. When President Xi hosted a visit by Senegalese President Macky Sall in Beijing last February, he said that in 2013, Chinese-African trade had surpassed $200 billion for the first time (this is more than twice as big as US-African trade), marking a 44 percent increase in Chinese direct investment in Africa. There seems to be no end soon to the China-Africa relationship.

3. New Choice of Economic Model to Follow for Developing Countries

When it comes to China’s influence on developing countries, there is definitely more than meets the eye: For these countries, China’s position is not limited to being a powerful trading partner or a developer, but extends to being a role model to emulate.
“In 1979 only capitalism could save China; in 2009 only China can save capitalism” is a joke circulating in Chinese society that demonstrates the country’s current status in the world’s economy. Indeed, China’s economic progress is worth noting. Since China’s economic reform in 1978, it has achieved rapid economic growth: China stands now as the world’s second largest economic power after the US. China’s performance has attracted the attention of emerging countries for not having reformed its political structure in improving its economy. So far, western countries have presumed that the Chinese socialist market economy will collapse. Yet, contrary to their expectations, China is managing itself quite well, having almost caught up with the US’s economy in a short period without making liberal democracy a top priority. “Instead of liberal democracy, they[China] have de-prioritized the democratic system. And they have also decided to prioritize economic rights over political rights,” Zambian global economist Dambisa Moyo pointed out in a lecture. On the other hand, the liberal-democratic US has becoming increasingly estranged from “economic democratization”, seeing an ever-widening gap between its rich and poor. Now it is even more difficult to argue that liberal democracy is a necessary condition for economic growth.
According to Moyo, people in emerging markets increasingly believe that it is the system embodied by China which can promise the best and fastest improvements in living standards. Now developing countries should be shown why liberal democracy is important for a nation’s long-term improvement. Otherwise, in the process of building their newly-emerged economic models, they will possibly give up on liberal democracy. Then people’s individual freedoms and political rights, which are not comparable with economic values, would not be guaranteed. This is the worst scenario that can be imagined in following the China example.

4. China’s Environmental Challenges

China’s economic development is firmly based on industrial activities. In particular, coal-powered plants have played key role in propelling the Chinese economy. Meanwhile, water, soil, and air pollution levels have also been rapidly rising. China pumped out almost 10 billion tons of CO2 in 2012, more than the US and the EU combined and nearly a third of the global total.
China itself is naturally the biggest victim of the pollution. According to the World Bank, in 2007 16 of the world’s 20 most air-polluted cities were in China. Air pollution is one of the biggest issues in China because smog contains not only ultrafine particles (PM 2.5), but also poisonous heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and arsenic. As reported in a study by Tsinghua University, 1.23 million Chinese lost their lives due to air pollution-related illnesses in 2010. The number accounts for 15 percent of total deaths recorded in the country for the same year. Water is also seriously polluted: Chinese government reports state that more that 70 percent of the country’s rivers and lakes are seriously polluted. That means more than half of the water from China’s 7 major rivers cannot be used even by industry. This is mainly because factories and corporations continue to dump sewage into nearby rivers. Meanwhile, the hundreds of dams distributing water to dry areas also give rise to pollution.
However, the point is that such environmental problems never end up as merely domestic matters, but as global challenges. Recently China’s neighboring countries started to suffer from the ultrafine particles produced in air pollution, for which China’s coal consumption is partly responsible. Indeed, there is no border when it comes to environmental pollution; the polluted air spreads across boundaries and polluted water permeates into the sea.
Nevertheless China, which does not want to harm other economics, refused to accept a binding agreement at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases by 50% by 2050. The world’s largest polluter came in for harsh criticism but China also has its own reasons for holding back. Historically, the developed countries which approved of this agreement have a bigger responsibility than the emerging countries for global warming. “Strictly in terms of equality, China should have the same scope to damage the planet in the future as rich nations have done in the past. It should also have the same right to consume. This would be completely fair and utterly calamitous,” states Jonathan Watts, an award-winning journalist for the Guardian newspaper, in his book “When a Billion Chinese Jump.”
The Chinese people’s call for harsher sanctions for pollution infringements grows stronger. In recent years, China has begun to put great efforts into reducing pollution. Last April the government decided to reform the overall environment-related law for the first time in 25 years. The new laws are the strictest ever: They not limited to raising environmental taxes, but totally revise the methods for punishing polluters. For example, if polluting companies or organizations that have been fined fail to clean up their acts within a given period, they have to pay more than the initial fine for every day that passes after the deadline. The reform is hugely expected to have a positive effect on environmental improvements.

“Noblesse oblige” means the more privileged you are, the more you should fulfil your social responsibilities. China as a superpower is now greatly “obliged” to bring a positive influence to our global society. Now the whole world is keeping an eye on China.


kimhyunjee@ajou.ac.kr

 

 

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