XPosting from India's foreign policy thread, in response to EAM Dr S Jishankar's recent article in the press
India and the emerging world: The impact on the global order of China’s rise will be visible over the next generation
With all due respect to EAM Jaishankar whom I like a lot, I think he is wrong in his analysis of China, in a fundamental way.
They have certainly increased the size of their economy, pulled 100s of millions of Chinese out of poverty, by becoming the sweat shop for a developed world that thrives on deficits and whose people spend wampum credit money on cheap gadgets and goods.
The whole world knows China & the CCP has used its economic prosperity to fudge their numbers, oppress their own population, rankle their neighbours, cheat in business, steal IP, have little respect for a rules based international conduct, siding with teerrorist nations like Pak & Iran, coersive diplomacy, corrupting global institutions like WHO. They have overfished the Pacific & the Atlantic waters to lifelessness, have destroyed flora and fauna in their country, polluted their lands like there is no tomorrow... the list of misdemeanours and crimes is endless !
If the USA and NATO had treated Chinese communism like they had treated Russian communism, China would be no where today.
What are China's contributions to the world? No scientific discoveries I can think of, no philosophical, intellectual, social contributions, no largesse in international disaster recovery and humanitarian aid, no technological innovations that truly matter. No cultural contributions either in terms of writers, poets, cinema, music, arts. The only notable contributions in recent times seems to be Corona and other viruses.
They have erased their own cultural roots many times over and have no civilisational awareness despite how frequently our eminently intellectual Jaishankar keep reminding them of it, both tirelessly and needlessly. Thats why Jaishankar's discussions with China are fruitless - words mean nothing when definitions and frames of reference are not the same. A moralising discourse goes nowhere with a China that lacks a basic moral compass. Expecting an ingrained liar to keep his promises is foolish. Respecting and expecting respect from a miscreant who has no value system is delusional. The Ladakh standoff negotiations are a telling demonstration of this.
China's World Power image is pure bluff taking up the space vacated by an aimless America, a decadent Europe, a slumbering India, a festering Middle East and an ever toddling Africa.
China being a "global power" is a carefully constructed and orchestrated CCP con job everyone seems to be walking into by default. Its nothing but a house of cards, one has to just muster courage and blow at it to make it collapse.
And India must do it, starting NOW, for its own sake.
(Zhouhan)
. Just saw that you beat me to it!