OPINION> Zhu Yuan
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OPINION> Zhu Yuan
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Don't count chickens before they're hatched
By Zhu Yuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-02 08:34
Is China already a world power? Does China have the potential to become a world power very soon? China has already overtaken Germany and will quite probably surpass Japan this year in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), and thus become the second largest economy next only to the United States. In such circumstances, both questions seem not to be delirious nonsense out of nothing. Among a number of books on the subject, Top Power - China's Dream; Reality and Strategy by Liu Tao, a Germany-based scholar on international politics, is, I believe, one of the best. This book has analyzed how long China has to go before becoming a top-level world power from different aspects. At the same time, the author has pointed out what the stumbling blocks are in the way and how to overcome them. In spite of the fact that the book does have chapters elaborating on the thorny problems the country faces such as environmental pollution and undesirable social institutions, the author apparently believes that China is already a world power and will soon become a top power. Instead of superpower that is pronounced as chaoji daguo in transliteration of Chinese, the author used toudeng qiangguo meaning top-level power in his book title. In my understanding, the word superpower projects more the military superiority of the country it refers to. For example, the US and the former Soviet Union used to be called two superpowers as both were the strongest in terms of military might. The expression of top-level power, instead, points to the all-inclusive strength of a nation. It may be used to correspond to the concept of the peaceful rise of China. As a big country with half a century of its modern history characterized by the stain of being bullied and humiliated by Western powers and even invaded by its neighbor much smaller in both size and population, there should be no surprise for many Chinese to harbor a dream for their motherland to become a power and to shake off the nickname of "sick man of Asia". So it is all too natural that some become over-enthusiastic in talking about the rise of China as a world power. However, there are different ways to talk about it. The authors of China Is Unhappy, a book published early this year, are fanning nationalism by unreasonably asserting that China must develop a strong military power and call the shots in establishing a new world order by wielding its military might. This is as misleading as the rhetoric that China will never be able to become a world power. It is risky to be too complacent with or even carried way by what we have achieved in the past three decades. At the same time, there is no reason for us to belittle ourselves and think ill of whatever we have done or are doing. It is unwise to count the chickens before they are hatched. The right thing to do right now is to make sure that we are doing the right thing. If we can make sure that we do everything in a right way or we can timely identify anything wrong with what we are doing and correct it in a timely manner, it won't be long before our country becomes a real world power. So the question is not how we count the chickens, but the way we make sure that the eggs are hatched in the right way. Though a bit complacent about China's future, this book is worth reading because the author does offer some remedies in specific ways on how to solve the problems that hinder the country from realizing its dream of becoming a real world power. E-mail: zhuyuan@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 09/02/2009 page8) |
