Source: The Independent
China, the country with the largest population, the biggest army in terms of active personnel, and the second biggest economy, is aiming to not only break the American or Western hegemony but also create its area of influence and why not a new particular World Order. To achieve this goal, China is relying on two major factors, the first is its growing powerful economy and the second is its military strength.
These mentioned factors will allow China to influence its environment sometimes in a soft way and sometimes using hard power through military force. In this article, we will be discussing the different methods and approaches that China developed to enhance its influence on the international and regional levels. And what are the challenges China will be facing to surpass the American hegemony once and for all?
China’s Overwhelming Economic Power
Being the largest exporter in the world has come with plenty of benefits for China. First, the establishment of foreign companies’ factories on Chinese soil has helped China acquire knowledge and expertise from pioneers in different sectors. The second one is laying the foundation to build a skilled and highly qualified workforce which in return helps grow the Chinese economy.
The third benefit is the emerging Chinese companies that applied the acquired expertise and started competing on the world stage. These factors helped enlarge Chinese wealth and gave it more opportunities to creatively expand its area of influence using cash.
The major project that aims to amplify Chinese economic expansion is The "Belt and Road Initiative"(BRI), through which China has taken the risk to give loans to some countries that are less likely to pay it back in the future due to corruption and conflicts. 8 countries were always at high risk of not being unable to pay (Djibouti-Sri Lanka -Kyrgyzstan- Tajikistan- Mongolia- Laos-Pakistan) but China kept lending them money.
And that because the BRI is more than just economics, There are numerous examples of Countries that were targeted by China’s overwhelming loans so it can achieve its strategic objectives.
One of them is Sri Lanka, the country is situated near India, which is China’s biggest rival in the region and has access to the Indian Ocean, and that too makes it appealing to Chinese strategic desires. Sri Lanka took a loan of about 1,5 billion dollars in order to build a new deep-water port and a potential key stop in China’s Maritime Silk Road project.
By 2017 it was clear that Sri Lanka was unable to pay the loan, so instead they gave China control of the port for the next 99 years, same China happened in Pakistan in which China took control of a strategic port using the same strategy but this time for the next 40 years. So the Chinese risky plan turns out to be of huge benefit to the People’s Republic. Even though it doesn’t have access to the Indian Ocean, China has managed to create one through its loan strategy.
China's Belt and Road initiative doesn’t stop here. It consists of two major components :
1. An overland Economic belt of 6 corridors that serves as new routes to get goods in and out of China, for example, the railway that connects China to London and the Gas pipelines that stretch from the Caspian sea to China.
2. A maritime silk road which is a chain of seaports stretching from the South China sea to Africa that will be used mainly to direct trade to and from China.
The BRI also includes oil refineries, industrial parks, power plants, mines, and fibre-optic networks. All to make it easier for the world to trade with China. So far 147 countries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China and joined the Belt and Road Initiative. China promotes it as a win-win partnership. Pakistan is a major example that wasn’t acquiring any foreign investments until the Chinese initiative came in and as a result, Pakistan's GDP reached its highest growth in 8 years.
China’s Hybrid Maritime Power
As it has not yet established enough naval bases farther than the one in Djibouti, China depends on its naval power to impress and demonstrate its strength to the neighbouring countries. The Chinese naval power consists not only of traditional marine forces but also of a naval force composed largely of civilian fishermen trained by the People’s Liberation Army and the Chinese Coast Guard to handle security and logistic tasks to support the Chinese naval force.
With the Indo-Pacific Ocean as its main area of action, China didn’t hesitate to grow its Navy exponentially. Now surpassing the U.S in terms of ship numbers, China is keen on constructing more ships to defend its interests overseas but most importantly in case of a war with Taiwan to face a potential American intervention.
Whether by soft or hard power, China is fiercely digging its way toward supremacy, for it is just a matter of time until China becomes a superpower, for others, it is still impossible because of the dependency China has on the Western World in some key Industries. We’ve seen the decline of Huawei as soon as it was blacklisted by the U.S, not to mention that China is still unable to defend its interests overseas rather than pledge to defend its allies that might be on other continents.
This is the reason why China should seize the opportunity of rising peacefully in the actual economic and political order set by the West, till the right time comes for it to redefine and create its own system after being able to back it up both economically and militarily.
Written By: Abderrahmane Loudiyi
Edited By: Nidhi Jha
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