{"id":188145,"date":"2021-07-05T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=188145"},"modified":"2021-07-04T09:25:32","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T08:25:32","slug":"the-chinese-miracle-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/07\/the-chinese-miracle-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"The Chinese Miracle, Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

Western exceptionalists may continue to throw a fit 24\/7 ad infinitum: that will not change the course of history<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

30 Jun 2021 – <\/em>The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) centennial takes place this week at the heart of an incandescent geopolitical equation.<\/p>\n

China, the emerging superpower, is back to the global prominence it enjoyed throughout centuries of recorded history, while the declining Hegemon is paralyzed by the \u201cexistential challenge\u201d posed to its fleeting, unilateral dominance.<\/p>\n

A mindset of full spectrum confrontation already sketched in the 2017 U.S. National Security Review is sliding fast into fear, loathing and relentless Sinophobia.<\/p>\n

Add to it the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership graphically exposing the ultimate Mackinderian nightmare of Anglo-American elites jaded by \u201cruling the world\u201d \u2013 for only two centuries at best.<\/p>\n

The Little Helmsman Deng Xiaoping may have coined the ultimate formula for what many in the West defined as the Chinese miracle:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo seek truth from facts, not from dogmas, whether from East or West\u201d.<\/p>\n

So this was never about divine intervention, but planning, hard work, and learning by trial and error.<\/p>\n

The recent session of the National People\u2019s Congress provides a stark example. Not only it approved a new Five-Year Plan, but in fact a full road map for China\u2019s development up to 2035: three plans in one.<\/p>\n

What the whole world saw, in practice, was the manifest efficiency of the Chinese governance system, capable of designing and implementing extremely complex geoeconomic strategies after plenty of local and regional debate on a vast range of policy initiatives.<\/p>\n

Compare it to the endless bickering and gridlock in Western liberal democracies, which are incapable of planning for the next quarter, not to mention fifteen years.<\/p>\n

The best and the brightest in China actually do their Deng; they couldn\u2019t care less about the politicizing of governance systems. What matters is what they define as a very effective system to make SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) development plans, and put them in practice.<\/p>\n

The 85% popular vote<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the start of 2021, before the onset of the Year of the Metal Ox, President Xi Jinping emphasized that\u00a0 \u201cfavorable social conditions\u201d should be in place for the CCP centennial celebrations.<\/p>\n

Oblivious to waves of demonization coming from the West, for Chinese public opinion what matters is whether the CCP delivered. And deliver it did (over 85% popular approval). China controlled Covid-19 in record time; economic growth is back; poverty alleviation was achieved; and the civilization-state became a \u201cmoderately prosperous society\u201d \u2013 right on schedule for the CCP centennial.<\/p>\n

Since 1949, the size of the Chinese economy soared by a whopping 189 times. Over the past two decades, China\u2019s GDP grew 11-fold. Since 2010, it more than doubled, from $6 trillion to $15 trillion, and now accounts for 17% of global economic output.<\/p>\n

No wonder Western grumbling is irrelevant. Shanghai Capital investment boss Eric Li succinctly describes the governance gap; in the U.S., government changes but not policy. In China, government doesn\u2019t change; policy does.<\/p>\n

This is the background for the next development stage \u2013 where the CCP will in fact double down on its unique hybrid model of \u201csocialism with Chinese characteristics\u201d.<\/p>\n

The key point is that the Chinese leadership, via non-stop policy adjustments (trial and error, always) has evolved a model of \u201cpeaceful rise\u201d \u2013 their own terminology \u2013 that essentially respects China\u2019s immense historical and cultural experiences.<\/p>\n

In this case, Chinese exceptionalism means respecting Confucianism \u2013 which privileges harmony and abhors conflict \u2013 as well as Daoism \u2013 which privileges balance \u2013 over the boisterous, warring, hegemonic Western model.<\/p>\n

This is reflected in major policy adjustments such as the new \u201cdual circulation\u201d drive, which places greater emphasis on the domestic market compared to China as the \u201cfactory of the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Past and future are totally intertwined in China; what was done in previous dynasties echoes in the future. The best contemporary example is the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) \u2013 the overarching Chinese foreign policy concept for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

As detailed by Renmin University Professor Wang Yiwei<\/a>, BRI is about to reshape geopolitics, \u201cbringing Eurasia back to its historical place at the center of human civilization.\u201d Wang has shown how \u201cthe two great civilizations of the East and the West were linked until the rise of the Ottoman Empire cut off the Ancient Silk Road\u201d.<\/p>\n

Europe moving seaward led to \u201cglobalization through colonization\u201d; the decline of the Silk Road; the world\u2019s center shifting to the West; the rise of the U.S.; and the decline of Europe. Now, Wang argues, \u201cEurope is faced with a historic opportunity to return to the world center through the revival of Eurasia.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s exactly what the Hegemon will go no holds barred to prevent.<\/p>\n

Zhu and Xi<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to argue that Xi\u2019s historical counterpart is the Hongwu emperor Zhu, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The emperor was keen to present his dynasty as a Chinese renewal after Mongol domination via the Yuan dynasty.<\/p>\n

Xi frames it as \u201cChinese rejuvenation\u201d: \u201cChina used to be a world economic power. However, it missed its chance in the wake of the Industrial Revolution and the consequent dramatic changes, and was thus left behind and suffered humiliation under foreign invasion\u2009\u2026we must not let this tragic history repeat itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The difference is that 21st<\/sup> century China under Xi will not retreat inward as it did under the Ming. The parallel for the near future would rather be with the Tang dynasty (618-907), which privileged trade and interactions with the world at large.<\/p>\n

To comment on the torrent of Western misinterpretations of China is a waste of time. For the Chinese, the overwhelming majority of Asia, and for the Global South, much more relevant is to register how the American imperial narrative \u2013 \u201cwe are the liberators of Asia-Pacific\u201d \u2013 has now been totally debunked.<\/p>\n

In fact Chairman Mao may end up having the last laugh. As he wrote in 1957, \u201cif the imperialists insist on launching a third world war, it is certain that several hundred million more will turn to socialism, and then there will not be much room left on earth for the imperialists; it is also likely that the whole structure of imperialism will utterly collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin Jacques, one of the very few Westerners who actually studied China in depth, correctly pointed out<\/a> how \u201cChina has enjoyed five separate periods when it has enjoyed a position of pre-eminence \u2013 or shared pre-eminence \u2013 in the world: part of the Han, the Tang, arguably the Song, the early Ming, and the early Qing.\u201d<\/p>\n

So China, historically, does represent continuous renewal and \u201crejuvenation\u201d (Xi). We\u2019re right in the middle of another one of these phases \u2013 now conducted by a CCP dynasty that, incidentally, does not believe in miracles, but in hardcore planning. Western exceptionalists may continue to throw a fit 24\/7 ad infinitum: that will not change the course of history.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Pepe Escobar is a Brazilian independent geopolitical analyst. He is a frequent contributor to websites and radio and TV shows ranging from the US to East Asia. He is the former roving correspondent for <\/em>Asia Times Online. He has been a foreign correspondent since 1985, and has lived in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Washington, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Even before 9\/11 he specialized in covering the arc from the Middle East to Central and East Asia, with an emphasis on Big Power geopolitics and energy wars. He is the author of <\/em>Globalistan<\/a> (2007),<\/em> Red Zone Blues<\/a> (2007), <\/em>Obama Does Globalistan<\/a> (2009), <\/em>Empire of Chaos<\/a> (2014) and <\/em>2030<\/a> (2015), all by Nimble Books.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – strategic-culture.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chinese Communist Party’s centennial takes place on 1 July at the heart of an incandescent geopolitical equation. China, the emerging superpower, is back to the global prominence it enjoyed throughout centuries of recorded history, while the declining Hegemon is paralyzed by the \u201cexistential challenge\u201d posed to its fleeting, unilateral dominance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":188107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[1149,1037,232,244,2584,907,1044,2258,171,644],"class_list":["post-188145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brics","tag-asia-and-the-pacific","tag-belt-road","tag-capitalism","tag-china","tag-chinese-communist-party","tag-communism","tag-east-asia","tag-evolution","tag-revolution","tag-silk-roads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}