I think it reflects the feelings of many to state that China’s emergence as an economic, technological, and military power – something that’s forced a realignment of global politics into what’s now a “bipolar” world – is one of the most welcome developments in contemporary history. That is, at least from the viewpoint of most countries of what’s known in geopolitical terms as the Global South or, in other words, the places that have for so long been denigrated as “the Third World”. Those from the poorest (well, in material terms) parts of the globe who have long suffered indignities at the hands of the Western world; the former colonizers that have never learnt to say a word of sorry but still insist on heckling, lecturing, and similar unwelcome behavior toward them, ought to heartily celebrate what China is now. Not very long ago “the Middle Kingdom” suffered the same indignities; the same disrespect, the same endless attempts by the West to meddle into its affairs and to block its path to advanced-nation status. It’s a losing effort now. China has achieved “escape velocity”, and broken free of the gravitational pull of those that have worked so hard and for so long to keep it down. In doing so the country has demonstrated what’s possible with enough determination, unity of purpose, and shared goals. The world’s new superpower isn’t a nation of Europeans, or descendants of Europeans, and nor does it share cultural affinity, in any way. Also, China’s rise is the surest refutation of the notion that for countries to attain economic, technological, military, or every facet of socio-economic development, one necessarily has to adopt Western models of politics or ideas of democracy as the organizing principles toward that. For years, it was drummed into people’s minds, via North American and European media, cultural institutions (think Hollywood films), or organisations whose purpose was to inculcate Western values, that nothing other than the ways and ideas of Western societies could lead to progress in any field of human endeavor. That notion has been well and truly refuted by a China that today boasts other-worldly public infrastructure (countless videos of its bullet trains or futuristic airports spring to mind), and that’s beating the West hollow in fields like AI, chips technologies, electric vehicles, and much more. The masses of China’s citizens also are reported to be achieving Western-level standards of living, but haven’t abandoned any of the things – political philosophy, culture and more – that make them Chinese. This is a country that just a few decades ago, in fact as recently as the 1970s, was still in the doldrums, laughed at by the industrialized powers with that epithet: “Third World backwater.” But, around then, this sleeping giant was course-adjusting, following the years of Chairman Mao (Zedong), the founder of the People’s Republic of China. Mao was a fighter and revolutionary that forged a unified nation, and built the foundation that his successor, Deng Xiaoping would use to effect the changes that have led to China’s profound transformation. Mao – a man that’s still revered in China – was a socialist with the belief that it was the responsibility of the state to build, own, and run industry on behalf of the masses, and that agriculture was best run by collectives of farmers. In this vision. there was very little place for private ownership, either of property or enterprise. Chairman Mao’s successor had slightly different ideas how to move this giant of a country forward. Following Mao’s death, Deng Xiaoping – known as the paramount leader of the People’s Republic of China – set about implementing an overall economic program adopting elements of market economics (collectivization was out) with a view to attract foreign direct investment. Deng was a practical man not blinkered by ideology whose favorite saying was: it doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice. To the paramount leader, wherever direct investment was to come from, including the West, it was welcome and everything had to be done to facilitate it. This was what was known as Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. Thus came into being the setup whereby the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) solely was in charge of the country’s politics but, while it retained significant control of sections of the national economy, kept out of the way of private enterprise. It’s worked wonders. It’s led to where the People’s Republic is now. One of the truly admirable things about modern China is that it’s achieved its greatness without ever inflicting pain or humiliation upon others. It has achieved its greatness without invading other people’s countries to subjugate their populations or subject them to colonial tyranny, the better to plunder or loot them dry. In fact, China itself just over a hundred years ago still was victim to colonial exploitation, and the collective hostility of the Western world. In place of belittling others, or meddling in their internal affairs, China offers developmental cooperation, best demonstrated by its belt and road initiative – the famous global infrastructure development strategy through which it has massively injected funding and loans to countries, with very few strings attached except repaying the loans (on very favorable terms). It’s so easy to root for China’s success.
