The China Miracle
On 22 August 2024, China commemorated the 120th anniversary of Deng Xiaoping’s birth. The third Plenary Session of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1978 marked the beginning of China’s reform and opening-up under the leadership of Deng. His reforms transformed China from one of the poorest countries, to the world’s second-largest economy. China’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at what economists have described as a “miracle rate”.
In the four decades from 1979 - 2019, one fifth of humanity emerged from a life of subsistence and misery to one of abundance and material comforts. In 1980, China’s per capita income was only $430 but, by 2020 it had grown by a multiple of 23 times to reach more than $10,000. By 2021 the size of China’s economy had surpassed that of the EU (including the UK) but was still below that of the US. However, applying the World Bank’s PPP measure (Purchase Power Parity) the IMF estimated that China overtook the US as the world’s largest economy in 2014[i].
Today, China graduates more than eight times the number of US graduates in science, technology, engineering, and medicine (STEM) and has more engineering graduates than the rest of the world combined.
Xi Jinping took the reins as leader of China in 2012. He sees himself as Deng’s heir and the one to see through the great mission which Deng started – The rejuvenation of China as a great civilisation. During the period between 2012 and 2023 the number of China’s high-tech enterprises rose from 45,000 to 465,000. China now dominates key industries in telecom infrastructure, electric vehicles, solar power, shipbuilding and more, and has overtaken the US in artificial intelligence, quantum physics, and robotics. In 2022, China had nearly 40,500 km of high-speed rail lines, more than double the combined length of the next 10 countries. By 2025 it’s modern railway infrastructure will include 50,000 km of high-speed rail.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has passed $1 trillion compared to Washington’s largest project ever, the rebuilding of Europe after World War II which amounted to just over US$100 billion measured in today’s dollars. Notably, Australia has controversially signed up to buy eight nuclear powered submarines at a cost of AU$368 billion (which equates to about US$248 billion) that is 2.5 times the cost of Washington’s largest project ever, measured in today’s money!
Two centuries ago, Napoleon Bonaparte is reported to have said, “Let China sleep. For when she awakes, the world will tremble.”
The Peace Maker
China is increasingly engaged in international peacemaking efforts through mediation, peacekeeping, and conflict management. As Deng famously said, “It is essential to have a stable political environment. Without that, nothing can be accomplished.”
During meetings in Beijing in July 2024, fourteen Palestinian factions including Hamas and Fatah signed a Chinese-brokered reconciliation agreement, establishing a national consensus government to manage the affairs of all Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This may eventually lead to Palestine’s admission to the United Nations as an independent state. This came soon after China had brokered a detente between arch enemies Saudi Arabia and Iran.
In talks in New Delhi in July 2024, China and India agreed to accommodate each other’s border concerns while India’s Finance Minister agreed to open India to direct investment from China which had been frozen since the Sino-Indian border clash of 2020.
China is stepping up construction of strategic railroad links in the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet to improve connectivity between Xinjiang, Tibet and inland China. China aims to extend the transport networks into these regions so that people to people exchanges can happen and goods from these regions can be sold into other parts of China.
Equally significant is China’s recent handing over control of two key African BRI railways to the governments of Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Kenya. The first electrified transnational railway in Eastern Africa begins in Addis Ababa (the capital of landlocked Ethiopia) and runs to the Port of Doraleh in Djibouti. The 480 km railway in Kenya runs from the coastal city of Mombasa to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Currently, there are BRI agreements in 151 countries around the world.
A Different View of China
Meg Hart is a graduate and post-graduate of both Hong Kong and Sydney Universities. She is currently a guest lecturer at Nan Tien Institute for Buddhist Studies in Wollongong. Hart has been visiting China for 50 years having first lived in Hong Kong with her Chinese husband. Following a recent visit to a Buddhist Mountain in Shanxi province, she remarked that most people there are “just like us – they want to be happy, safe, free from suffering, and respected for who they are”, noting that Australia’s mainstream media do us a great disservice with its steady drip-feed of Sinophobic stories while ignorance of the real China is maintained.
In Western perceptions the Chinese are supposed to be repressed, censored, and hostile, but Hart found them walking and dancing in lush parks, eating fine food with their families, and watching their children at play. While a Chinese guide acknowledged the downside of ubiquitous cameras causing less privacy, the upside is safe streets, people feeling secure, zero vandalism and pristine public spaces.
Despite claims by the Mainstream Western Media that the West crusades for freedom, democracy and human rights, the dominant motto guiding American action is “Let’s go to war” whereas China lives according to a different motto, “Let’s go to work”.
The Australian journalist, Cheng Lei, who was imprisoned in China for three years expresses concern over extreme Australian views about China, fear mongering and the failure to try to understand and engage with people whose views may differ from their own. Nick Coyle, Cheng’s partner and former chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Beijing suggests that Australians should become adept at “walking and chewing gum” over its relationship with China, adding that it is important for the Australian media not to overreact on every issue.
America’s Diminishing Influence
America’s global dominance is under challenge as never before. Resistance to US policies is gathering pace in the Global South. However, it is China’s economic rise which has most dramatically exposed America’s waning influence. Not only did the IMF report in 2014 that China was the world’s largest economy measured by PPP, according to IMF data, during the last 10 years, China has contributed 30% of global GDP growth compared to only 8.8% for the US. The World Bank reports that by 2019, China’s and America’s share of the world’s total economic output reached 16.4% and 16.3% respectively.
There has been a decline in America’s reputation among Arab publics. Arab nations now see Beijing and Moscow as genuine mediators in the Middle East. Unlike Washington, Beijing and Moscow are not seen to meddle in their internal affairs.
There is Room for Optimism
There may be some light at the end of the tunnel.
At a recent election rally in Pennsylvania, Trump remarked that “getting along” with Russia and North Korea would be a “good thing”, not a “bad thing” and he repeated his claim that “What is happening now in relations with Russia would not have happened” had he been in office. Speaking at a different rally, Trump praised Xi as a “great leader”. None of this suggests agreeing with or cosying up to those leaders. However, As Winston Churchill said, “Jaw, jaw, is better than war, war.”
During Trump’s first term in office, he was heavily criticised for his dealings with the leaders of Russia, China, and North Korea. However, former Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard has praised Trump for his courage in meeting with adversaries and dictators in the pursuit of peace. The current US Administration faces multiple wars on multiple fronts bringing the world closer to the brink of nuclear war than ever. Trump’s first task will be to walk the United States back from the brink of war.
Also promising is a recent paper in Foreign Policy magazine referring to books by Philip Gordon and Rebecca Lissner, both of whom are senior policy advisers to Kamala Harris. They talk about Washington discarding its “messianic” goal of transforming the world in its image and instead, adopting a “humbler” approach, even accommodating autocratic and illiberal regimes, while discarding ideological crusades and containment strategies.
And that is how it should be, whether under Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.
“AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM” – HEAR THE OTHER SIDE!
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[i] China's Age of Abundance by Wang Feng 2024
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