When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World by Martin Jacques

Author:Martin Jacques [Jacques, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General, World History, History, Political Science, International Relations, Business & Economics, Western countries, Economics, Globalization, China, Economic Conditions, International, Economic Policy, Public Policy
ISBN: 9780713992540
Google: kmLuAAAAMAAJ
Amazon: 0713992549
Publisher: Allen Lane
Published: 2009-05-14T22:00:00+00:00

open

economy,

is

far

more

multifarious - as a market for the

products of the region, as an

exporter and as a multifaceted

investor.

Figure 24. Growing importance of

Chinese market.

Zhang Yunling, one of the

architects of China’s new strategy,

and Tang Shiping have described

the aim as: ‘to make China a

locomotive for regional growth by

serving as a market for regional

states and a provider of investment

and

technology’. 46

The

most

obvious expression of this has been

the way in which, in less than a

decade, China has become one of -

if not the - most important market

for many countries in the region: in

a few years’ time, it seems likely

that it will be the single largest

market for every country in the

region. For the ASEAN countries,

the Chinese market is now three

times the size of Japan’s. 47 No country - not even Japan, whose

trade with China has recently

overtaken that with the United

States - can afford to ignore the

Chinese

market,

or,

as

a

consequence, China. 48 Since 2000

China’s imports from ASEAN have

increased at an annual rate of 30-40

per cent. 49 China, for example, accounted for 13.2 per cent of

Singapore’s

exports

in

2001,

compared with 2.5 per cent in 1993,

18.5 per cent of South Korea’s

exports in 2001, compared with 6

per cent in 1993, and 9.2 per cent of

Australia’s

exports

in

2000,

compared with 6 per cent in 1994.50

It was widely feared in South-East

Asia that Chinese imports from the

ASEAN

countries

would

be

overwhelmingly comprised of raw

materials. Certainly these are very

significant, a case in point being the

huge Chinese demand for timber,

which is rapidly stripping the

Indonesian forests. 51 The most

important

single

category

of

ASEAN exports to China, however,

is composed of intermediate goods.

China is where the final assembly

of many products of foreign-owned

multinationals

(American,

European, Japanese, Taiwanese and

South Korean) takes place prior to

their

export

to

their

final

destination. Countries like Malaysia

and Thailand thus occupy a crucial

niche in a complex division of

labour centred on China.52 In

addition, China is assuming the role

of

an

increasingly

important

investor in the region, with a large

quantity of investment aimed at the

extractive

industries

and

infrastructure like railways, toll

roads and refineries, in order to

speed the flow of natural resources

to the Chinese market. In 2002, 60

per cent of China’s total foreign

direct investment was directed

towards Asia, 53 making it by far the most important destination. As a

consequence, Chinese investment in

South-East Asia has helped to

compensate for the decline in

Western investment over the last

few years.

Zhang Yunling and Tang Shiping

have described China’s regional

strategy in the following terms:

‘participate actively, demonstrate

restraint, offer reassurance, open

markets, foster interdependence,

create common interests, and reduce

conflict’.54 With one bold and

unexpected

stroke,

China

has

succeeded, in the manner of Deng

Xiaoping,

in

redefining

the

dynamics of the region and, in the

process, given itself more space for

its own economic development. For

sheer courage and unpredictability,

China’s

East

Asian

initiative

belongs to the genre of Chinese

diplomacy initiated by Mao in the

rapprochement with the United

States in 1971. Even the intractable

problems of North-East Asia are to

some extent being redrawn by the

ASEAN-BASED Chinese initiative,

with both Japan and South Korea

now involved in the creation of the

East Asian Free Trade Area first

proposed by the Chinese premier

Wen Jiabao at the 2003 ASEAN+3

summit. It is impossible to predict

the outcome of the process - or,

more accurately, processes - now

under way. They are open-ended

and multi-layered, and could yet

acquire another dimension, with the

involvement of India and perhaps

other South Asian countries in the

future. 55 It has been suggested that one day there might be a fully-fledged East Asia Economic Union,

perhaps even with a common

currency, although the latter seems

fanciful given the huge economic

disparities across the region.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.