Walking the Yellow Brick Road: China's Rise to Superpower

To wit, the Chinese government has recently worked to revive certain Confucian traditions, such as ancestor reverence. Their reasoning is that these traditions are now important because they help to instill respect for authority within the population. This is an interesting turn of events, in that communist party initially encouraged flouting the authority of the Emperor and religious leadership and returning power to the people. However, now that the process of cementing central government authority under the current regime has been completed, China now seeks to reinforce its authority by imbuing it with cultural significance.

While China has needed to expand in search of markets and materials to fuel its voracious growth, it has done so under the banner of trade rather than ideology. Forced by circumstance (perhaps some recall the political backlash that forced China to drop its bid to acquire U.S. oil company Unocal in 2005), China has adopted a pragmatic approach that has afforded it opportunities in the developing world that the West has foregone. As the West tried to isolate Sudan and Zimbabwe through trade sanctions, hoping to force their regimes to stop human rights abuses, China engaged. In doing so, however, China was criticized in the West for being soft on human rights and enabling brutal dictators. Rather than try to cover for the regimes it traded with or attempting to justify their strategy, China humbly accepted the criticism and continued to trade.

By largely ignoring international political pressure, China has been able to stay focused on its most important aims. The result is that in a relatively short period of time it has cobbled together a massive trading empire. The fact that over eighty world leaders are present in Beijing for the Olympics, the most ever in attendance at any Olympics is a testament to China’s effectiveness at negotiating agreements without getting bogged down by ideological principles.

Whether China’s strategy continues to bear fruit remains to be seen. But by all indications, growth in China will continue to increase over the next several decades. By sticking to its principles, acting in the face of opposition, and making the necessary sacrifices, it looks like China will come out on top. And it did not take a wizard to pull it off.