Give Me More: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) Turns 60

On October 01 2009, the PRC would celebrate sixty years of the founding of the republic and the Communist Party justifiably deserves all credit for putting China on the world map as a major Asian power on its way to superpower status. In 1949, it had just emerged from a forty-year long civil war. Today, China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and one of the five acknowledged nuclear powers. Its economy in PPP terms is second only to that of the US and continues to maintain an impressive rate of growth in a world beset by economic slowdown. But is China a satisfied power? Has it developed into a mature player on the global stage?

Soon after its birth the Communist Party leadership embarked on the task of consolidating the gains and unifying the country. It not only successfully fought off the remaining warlords and Nationalist Kuomintang threats in Sichuan and Yunnan but also marched into Tibet and Xingjiang and held back the Americans in the Korean War, albeit at a heavy cost in human lives.

China allied with the Soviet Union and started building its defence industry and tested the atomic weapon in October 1964 and a hydrogen bomb soon thereafter, followed by a nuclear powered submarine in the 1980s.

China was involved in no less than eight armed conflicts with its neighbours including the mighty Soviet Union in 1969 and resolved almost all its outstanding border problems more or less to its advantage. Its people also suffered untold privations and misery at the hands of its leadership as the ‘Great Leap Forward’ and ‘The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’ which raged for over a decade were self inflicted injuries. In the post Mao era, its enlightened leadership especially the legendary Deng Xiaoping opened up China and began economic liberalisation that quadrupled its 1978 GDP by the end of the last century.

In spite of US support to Taiwan the PRC ensured that its ambitious leaders were not allowed to unilaterally declare independence even if the PRC had to frighten them by firing a few missiles across the straits in 1995-96. In 1997 the PRC saw the return of Hong Kong and in 1999 Macau to its fold. Since 1978 the PRC has also seen three peaceful successions of party leadership. China’s claims to the Paracels and Spratley islands in the South China Sea stand a good chance of becoming a reality in the near future.

Yet, China gives the impression that it is not satiated. A minor protest in Tibet or Xinjiang or a few of its citizens doing Tai Chi under the banner of a cult and the Party leadership goes into a tizzy. Its leadership seems to behave in a hyper-realist manner while routinely espousing the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. It refuses to open diplomatic relations with any country unless that country first accepts the ‘One China’ reality. It finds it difficult to forget the painful memories of its exploitation at the hands of imperial/colonial powers. It celebrates its ‘victimhood’ and imagines enemies lurking behind every rock. Its leadership seems to have kept alive the fear of foreigners and even the younger generation of Chinese (unfamiliar with the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown) has been indoctrinated into developing an ultranationalist mindset and Han chauvinism. The PRC leadership is perhaps worried that even an occasional exposure to a chaotic democracy that actually works might give its young people dangerous ideas.

At sixty a human being is normally expected to be both friendly and contemplative; and since a nation state is essentially made up of its people this rule must also apply to national behaviour. China on the other hand appears to say, “Be reasonable, do it my way”. And if a man is known by the company he keeps, China’s friends circle comprises of North Korea, Pakistan, Iran and Myanmar – all authoritarian regimes. No amount of pious homilies about becoming a responsible member of the global community and championing the cause of the underdog can erase this reality. Whether in the NSG, IAEA, UN or ADB China wants its own way; no accommodation or consideration for others. It is a moot point if a country can be really happy when surrounded by neighbours that constantly wait with bated breath for the next outburst, be it a maritime incident in the South China Sea or a ‘mistaken’ bombing of its Belgrade embassy. In that sense, China’s behaviour is perfectly predictable. It cannot deny that China routinely allows its state controlled media to pour vitriol on perceived competitors and burn foreign consulates when things do not go its way. One can be sure that on its path to Superpowerdom China is surely going to demonstrate ‘road rage’, and notwithstanding its so-called ‘peaceful rise’ the world has to simply get used to it. What Blaise Pascal said to the Jesuits nearly four hundred years ago still holds: “You demand liberties in the name of our principles that you deny in the name of yours”. International relations would remain fraught with such paradoxes.