China’s 60th anniversary

“With great power comes great responsibility” are the words Spiderman’s uncle Ben left him before he passed away. These words are also true for an emerging China. Especially at the moment when the whole nation cheers for its 60th anniversary, the Chinese have never stood taller on the world stage than today.

Since China adapted the reform and opening policy 20 years ago, it has benefited greatly from economic globalization and became the second largest economy in the world. With China’s rise to the status of “big” country, people have started to expect her to take a greater share of responsibility in international society, but this has not always happened.

It is hard to imagine today that a few years ago whether China was emerging or not still remained an open debate. When China put most of its resources and energy into holding the 2008 Olympic Games, some commentators even predicted its collapse. But in the end China presented the world a successful carnival and its economy continued to grow robustly. In the meantime, the outbreak of the financial crisis allowed China to play an important role in the eventual global recovery. China’s development model also became a roadmap of other developing countries.

But the truth is China is a big power with a medium power mindset, and a small power chip on its shoulder. In appearance it is the second largest economy of the world, but for many Chinese life remains a struggle. It advertised its “peaceful rise,” but the arm display on the anniversary parade and hard-line attitude in the region shows the opposite. And as a constructive international partner, it only picks and chooses the issues that it is willing to help on.

Therefore, even though China promised to curb growth of soaring CO2 emissions and signed a communiqué committing itself to a process of economic co-operation, and has also helped North Korea back to the six party talks on nuclear issue, it still withholds cooperation on some specific issues. For example, China will never exert pressure upon Sudan for the Darfur conflict or agree to further sanctions to Iran for developing nuclear weapon, risking its interest in oil there.

It is this kind of pragmatism that has helped China go so far. But China’s emerge can be seen either as an opportunity or a threat to the world. Peaceful emerge is meaningful only when China fully takes its share of responsibility in international society. Where will China’s pragmatic diplomacy end up in the next ten years? The world is watching.