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CHINA: A REVIEW OF TWO IMPORTANT NEW ARTICLES Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power Is Transforming The World Assessing China’s Economic Rise: Strengths, Weaknesses And Implications Reviewed by Amb. Joe Rogers These complementary articles explore China’s growing influence and economic power and its willingness to use that new strength to project itself both economically and diplomatically. Dr. Keidel, a former director of the Office of East Asian Nations at the U. S. Treasury and senior economist in the World Bank's Beijing office, holds a Ph.D. from Harvard. A visiting scholar at Carnegie, Mr. Kurlantzick is a special correspondent for the New Republic and covered Southeast Asia and China for publications including U. S. News and World Report and The Economist. In “Assessing China's Economic Rise,” Keidel admirably summarizes the economic history of China since its liberalization began in 1978, although with too heavy an emphasis on the public sector and neglect of the entrepreneurs, who have driven economic success. Emphasizing the place of domestic-oriented economic expansion in China’s rapid growth, he rightly points out that “the dominant foundations of China’s [economic] rise are clearly domestic.” He links this to developments in the political system, public investment, and the financial system Keidel cites the quality of the Chinese leadership, which has maintained a “development-oriented ideology” and the “ability to promote capable individuals,” and has established a “system of collaborative policy review.” He also credits the leadership’s concentration on public infrastructure as paving the way for private economic activity. In “Charm Offensive,” Kurlantzick summarizes his book of the same title, wherein he explores China’s use of soft power, which to the Chinese “means all power outside of the military sphere, including diplomacy, aid, investment, and economic tools.” Kurlantzick emphasizes China’s focus on countries and regions where it avoids competition with the United States or Japan and where international sanctions or economic or security situations deter Western business. This is closely linked to the appeal of the Chinese model to other authoritarian regimes. In part this offensive reflects the Chinese need for resources. With the exception of Australia, where China has become an investor to the point of raising legitimate security concerns, this need has led the soft power offensive into the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. The emergence of China as a sovereign investor in U. S. financial institutions post dates the article. Additional motivations are isolation of Taiwan and reassertion of Chinese hegemony in Asia. The recent use of aid and military assistance to the Philippines is an example of China’s growing influence where this had been unthinkable. Kurlantzick highlights several “tools of influence” used by the Chinese: economic aid, more visible diplomacy, promotion of cultural and language studies, direct investment, and free-trade agreements Where both authors fail is in interpreting Chinese determination to become a major military power. Kurlantzick lacks a strategic framework within which soft power is being projected. Keidel errs in stating that “China’s economic size will not quickly translate into comparable degrees of military prowess.” The same late adopters' premise that Keidel credits with making rapid economic progress possible applies equally to developing military capabilities, and the “charm offensive” is opening opportunities for force projection, particularly in regions where the West is least capable of countering Chinese influence. |
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