Is China's rise an opportunity or a threat to world - Essay Example

China’s rise: Opportunity or threat? China is rapidly emerging as a potent political and economic force in the world. As pointed out by Angang Hu (2007), China and India have double the population of the developed countries, with the combined share of GDP of these two countries equaling that of 29 European countries. China’s rise parallels that of the United States a century ago in terms of high economic growth rate and contribution to the world’s GDP and it is now a superpower in terms of world resource consumption growth.

However, its rise has created a development opportunity for the world, not a threat. Munakata (2003) has discussed the impact of China’s rise from a Japanese perspective. He points out that China is viewed as an economic threat because of the high level of imports from China, the rise in foreign direct investment and the inexhaustible supply of low cost hard working laborers, as well as educated engineers and researchers. However, it also provides an opportunity for Japan, because it is the fast growing export market, the profitability of Japanese investments in China has improved considerably, and increased mergers between Chinese and Japanese companies have resulted in a financial windfall for Japan, thus this author concludes that China’s rise is more of an opportunity rather than a threat.

According to Lampton (2007), the United States is not making an accurate assessment of China’s rise, since it is focusing on China’s military might. It views China as an emerging military power because the country is too big to compel cooperation, however this could result in unnecessary squandering of resources. Lampton (2007) suggests that instead of viewing China’s rise mainly in terms of its growing strength, there is a need to pay attention to its growth in the economic and intellectual domains.

He suggests that the U.S. should focus on ways to improve cooperation and ally with China instead of entering into conflict. Restall(2007) is of the view that China’s military build up is not of a magnitude as to be a source of concern to the United States. The important aspect of this growing military strength is that China is taking on the role of providing military protection to smaller Asian States, which was once the U.S. role. As a result, China poses a threat to the United States hegemony in Asia.

It is also entering into pragmatic partnerships with Asian countries and capitalizing on the desire among Asians for self reliance and freedom from outside interference. Therefore China appears poised to play a leadership role in the region and could pose a threat to U.S. hegemony. Paltiel, J.T. (2005) has examined the rise of China in terms of changes in the current international relations. He points out the conflicting views about China’s rise, with some viewing China as a force that will destabilize the international system while others view China’s interests and status quo as reflecting the status quo.

China is adopting a policy of peaceful emergence as a platform of its foreign policy, but its long standing opposition to hegemony does pose a threat to the maintenance of stability within the international system. References:* Hu, Angang, 2007. “The Economic Impacts of the rise of China on the world.” [online] retrieved October 5, 2007 from: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/china-policy-institute/events/documents/Angang_HU_CPI_Chatham_House_Talk_18_04_07.pdf* Lampton, David M, 2007.

“The Faces of Chinese Power” Foreign Affairs, 86 (1):115* Munakata, Naoko, 2003. “The impact of the rise of China and regional economic integration in Asia: a Japanese perspective.” [online] Retrieved October 5, 2007 from: http://www.brookings.edu/fp/cnaps/munakata20031204.pdf* Paltiel, Jeremy, 2005. “The rise of China as a challenge to International relations Theory.” [online] retrieved October 5, 2007 from: http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p70638_index.html* Restall, Hugo, 2007.

“China’s bid for Asian hegemony.” Far Eastern Economic Review, 170(4): 10-15