The most common mistake that we Westerners can make is to consider other cultures "backward", from a Western-centric perspective. However, this perception is often given more by a lack of knowledge of the history of other countries, rather than by concrete data.
A striking example of this is the disbelief of much of our ruling and political class towards the rise and return to the center of China as a global superpower. Until a few years ago it was in fact considered, even by many local intellectuals, to be a simple developing country. This is only because until the first half of the last century it was a mostly agricultural country and moreover semi-colonized by foreign powers. And mostly Westerners. This is obviously a partial vision that does not take into account the great past of the Chinese Empire.
Far be it from me, here, to want to start a long exposition on Chinese history. However, I think it is useful to recall some events that perhaps many today ignore when they climb into political analyzes concerning this country with a millenary culture.
The country of the Center
An important piece of information is already provided by the name of China itself, which is in Mandarin zhongguó, or “Central Country”. This is an important first piece of data. It makes us understand how this country has always been central to the known world, starting from the foundation of the Empire (221 BC) until the modern era. This centrality was not only cultural, but also economic.
Let's take a step back
Few people know that starting from the 7th century AD, during the Kingdom of the Tang Dynasty, there existed a system of tributes in which all the vassal states, i.e. North-East and South-East Asia, to become part of the world Chinese economy, to do business with this great country and to obtain the precious goods that it produced, they were required to pay a tribute with very specific rituals in which an emissary of the vassal state brought gifts and bowed to the emperor, subjugating their country to the Chinese Empire. This was not only done out of simple reverence towards an important empire, but above all for economic convenience: being part of this economic system meant developing one's country compared to others that were not part of it or could not be part of it.
We are talking about a complex economic system for the time, with a real trade zones and a common currency: silver, with common prices that had the Chinese ones as a reference. We could say, provocatively, that already in the seventh century China had somehow created an ancestor of what our Eurozone is today. China's supremacy in East Asia was effective and lasted for centuries. Suffice it to say that the formalization of the Chinese Tax System, which as mentioned already existed de facto in the 7th century, occurred during the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century and lasted until the establishment of the Western-style Westphalian system in Asia towards the end of the 19th century.
It's not an ascent, but a return
Another important fact is the fact that China until 1820, according to OECD data, was effectively the world's leading economic power. So when we hear most Western observers talk about a "sudden rise" of China, we should perhaps ask ourselves whether it is not rather a return of China's economic supremacy at the center globally.
The center of all Chinese choices
Therefore, if we really want to understand China's foreign policy and objectives today, we should first understand that the key word of all their choices, as well as their objective, is: being at the Center. Over the centuries, China has developed a centrality (and therefore a supremacy) over all the states of East Asia, at different levels: cultural through literature, art, writing; bureaucratic-political through the creation of a highly qualified class of senior officials (the mandarins) chosen through merit-based examinations as early as the seventh century; and economic through the economic system of taxes and trade zones outlined in outline above.
Although China today has changed profoundly, it keeps the core of its thousand-year-old structure intact at every level and, above all, it still maintains the same primary objective: to return to the Center, this time not of East Asia, but of the entire world.
In place of the emperor, the Communist Party
Today, in place of the Emperor we find the Chinese Communist Party headed by the President Xi Jinping. Like all Chinese "emperors", he will lose the "heavenly mandate" if he fails to achieve his goal. But what does “bringing China back to the center” mean in today's globalized and multipolar world?
It means first of all being able to make the China the world's largest economy. As? Taking advantage of everything that globalization has provided him. An advantageous position thanks to the low-cost workforce at its disposal, large markets to sell its products to (see Europe and USA) and the use of raw materials for industrial production. In doing so, however, the country led by Xi could soon find itself trapped in the so-called "Poverty Trap". By raising the wages of Chinese workers, there could be a shortage of cheap labor. However, this wage increase is necessary if China is to become an independent economic power that is not largely dependent on exports.
What is the solution that Xi wants to give to this dilemma?
A well-structured geo-economic and geostrategic plan composed of various strategies:
- Beijing consensus: strategy consisting mostly in the creation of investment networks in Africa, particularly in central East Africa. This would allow China to reinvest the accumulated capital and solve the problem of low-cost labor, replacing Chinese labor with African labor in the not too distant future. At the same time it would also provide China with new natural resources which are certainly not lacking on the African continent.
- Go West: This strategy consists of two actions. First, the expansion to the West through the creation of a New Silk Road reaching Europe via Central Asia. Second, a maritime version of the New Silk Road that touches ports in Asia, Africa and Southern Europe.
- Leap East: a strategy that allows China to "jump" to the East at the same time. How? By establishing political and economic relations with Latin America, bypassing the US military and naval presence in the Pacific.
All this to counterbalance the US strategy of Pivot to Asia. A strategy initiated by Barack Obama, which consists of shifting the focus of US foreign policy to Asia to contain China. The presence of the United States 7th Fleet in the Asia-Pacific quadrant is certainly not accidental. Indeed, following the withdrawal of American troops from the Middle East, this strategy is increasingly intensifying. The tensions of recent days in the South China Sea and on the island of Taiwan are just the tip of the iceberg of the effects of this containment strategy.
The importance of Soft Power to return to the center
To the emperors the revocation of the mandate (groaning, a word which in Chinese also means "revolution") occurred when they were unable to complete the objectives they had set for the country. The same could happen with Xi if the latter fails to bring China back to the centre, in every sphere: economic, political, cultural. In this last area, the use of the soft power also through the 541 Confucius Institutes, a direct emanation of the Beijing Government, present in 149 countries; or with the purchase of football teams in Western countries, for example.
Attention and awareness
In summary, whatever posture our country and other Western countries want to take towards the Chinese giant, we must first of all do everything possible to understand its history and culture. These are the roots on which the incredible rise that Beijing has been experiencing in recent decades is based. Otherwise, the causes of this incredible growth will never be truly understood. Of this return to the center and of the hegemony of this great country that from regional it may soon become global.
As always, it is up to us to decide whether to be proactive, picking up the weak signals to get the most out of the situation in front of us. Or get trapped in the spider's web and passive witnessing the new domination of an underrated and unknown giant.
