Anja Lahtinen - Chinas Global Aspirations and Confucianism

Cover illustration: Melisa Hasan

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Chinas globalisation dates to the Silk Road through contact with Marco Polo and the Jesuits trying to convert Chinese to Catholicism. From 1949 until the late 1980s, Chinas strategy relied on security balancing with the United States and the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, it moved to market-led economic growth and amicable external relations. Today, Chinas globalisation is intertwined with the Belt and Road Initiative and the Chinese concept The Community with Shared Future for Mankind, firmly embedded by Confucianism as Chinas soft power. China has become an economic power asserting its economic and diplomatic clout to win allies to invest and trade worldwide. However, its quest for global power is not just economics. At the same time, China seeks more significant influence in world affairs at the international institutions and forums.

Chinas grand strategy is to reach modernity by 2050 and be a fully modernised country. China has become an economic power asserting its economic and diplomatic clout to win allies to invest and trade worldwide through winwin partnerships with no strings attached. China seeks more significant influence in world affairs at the international institutions and forums while contesting human rights.

Half a century ago China was poor, chaotic, and isolated due to the cultural revolution (19661976). Doctrinal differences caused the Sino-Soviet split that influenced geopolitics during the Cold War (19451991). In February 1972, US President Richard Nixon visited China. It opened new opportunities in trade, travel, and exchanges in education, science, sports, and culture. In December 1978, Deng Xiaoping announced that China would open its national economy. His hallmark was economic growth, stability, and pragmatic foreign policy. China established special economic zones in coastal cities and attracted investors to them. In 1980, China joined the International Monetary Fund , the IMF, and the World Bank , and the money taps opened. In 2001, the country was admitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO). In forty years, China urbanised, industrialised, and internationalised.

China has become the primary economic and development partner for emerging countries through its multilateralism policy and economic diplomacy. Chinas strong foothold in Africa began through its aid to new established African countries in the 1960s. Furthermore, it imported raw materials and energy during the last twenty years and invested in Africas infrastructure. Since Xi Jinping came into power in 2012, the economic, social, and foreign policy trajectories have been revised and changed. His political authority in the domestic sphere proactive and assertive foreign policy have brought China into the new era.

Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI ) was launched in 2013. President Xi Jinpings ambitious plan is to develop new trade routes to connect China with the rest of the world. The initiative comprises building the infrastructure of railways, roads, bridges, and airports while it provides the world market for Chinas state-owned companies. The BRI is also the governments instrument to stimulate growth in Chinas less-developed provinces and encourage their businesses to compete for contracts. Chinese investments abroad also have adverse outcomes, such as poor quality, environmental degradation, corruption, and the influx of Chinese labour. Chinas debt trap diplomacy is a problem for borrowing countries as it is for China. Chinas global initiative has opportunities while there are geopolitical concerns with economic, political, social, and environmental aspects of the countries and regions on the road.

Chinas quest for global power is not just economics. From 1949 until the decline of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, Chinas strategy relied on security balancing with the United States and the Soviet Union. In the 1990s, its strategy approach moved to a calculative approach, emphasising market-led economic growth and amicable external relations with all states while developing its military capabilities. China has upgraded its strategic partnerships and expanded military exchanges and joint exercises with Russia, Pakistan, and Iran in recent years. China seeks to reintegrate Taiwan , take back the Diaoyu Islands (known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands) from Japan, and control most of the South China Sea. So does the United States. It is pursuing similar agenda to become a hegemon in its region and the most influential country in the world. It has long-standing allies Japan and South Korea, multilateral partnerships such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (with Australia, India, and Japan) and the newly formed AUKUS pact (with Australia and the United Kingdom). Chinas successful competition entails that the United States respects China and refrains from harming Chinese interests and managing their differences according to norms upheld by China. Heath, Grossman, and Clark, 2021. In other words, China is challenging the US hegemon, its unilateralism and military power.