Everything Under the Heavens
How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power
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For many years after its reform and opening in 1978, China maintained an attitude of false modesty about its ambitions. That role, reports Howard French, has been set aside. China has asserted its place among the global heavyweights, revealing its plans for pan-Asian dominance by building its navy, increasing territorial claims to areas like the South China Sea, and diplomatically bullying smaller players. Underlying this attitude is a strain of thinking that casts China's present-day actions in decidedly historical terms, as the path to restoring the dynastic glory of the past. If we understand how that historical identity relates to current actions, in ways ideological, philosophical, and even legal, we can learn to forecast just what kind of global power China stands to become--and to interact wisely with a future peer.
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Some useful background information — I can't speak to the level of bias or Orientalist-type perspectives that may be present, but appreciated the extensive use of quotations and excerpts as a way of “letting history speak for itself” instead of just summarizing. As someone generally uninterested in China (sorry? I prefer a dry heat and less jungle) and resultantly less familiar with its developments in foreign policy, this at least provided a helpful backdrop and framework against which to lay current events.
