China in Global Stages: Power and Ambition

David Kelly observed the development of China and categorized into seven stages which he calls “Seven Chinas”.

1. China as the Sufficient Civilization: Henry Kissinger believes that the culture is the exceptional value of China which is used to put the world under the value “great harmony to all under the heaven”.
2. China as the most Humiliated Nation:  China believe that it is the senior, the heaven candidates that was conquered and despised by the barbarian. The great and longest history of civilization that was full of proud was looked down bitterly and forced to abandoned and accepted the others. Xi Jinping said ““After the Opium War, China has been repeatedly defeated by countries which were smaller and less populous. Kowloon and the New Territories were then forced to leave China’s embrace at that time, (and) China’s history was full of the nation’s humiliation and the people’s sorrow.”

1. The Leader of the Developing World: among the late developer, we lead. The competitions between the US and Soviet in the Cold War divided the world into two blocs. There was Africo-Asian conference in Bandung aimed at promoting economic and cultural cooperation and opposed to the colonialism or neocolonialism. The conference led to the non-alignment movement. China since then and until nowadays has the intention to lead them, and become the global leader at the end. Addressed to the UN, Deng show the intention to oppose the two superpowers and want to lead the developing world “The whole world is in turbulence and unrest. The situation is one of “great disorder under heaven,” as we Chinese put it. This “disorder” is a manifestation of the sharpening of all the basic contradictions in the contemporary world. It is accelerating the disintegration and decline of the decadent reactionary forces and stimulating the awakening and growth of the new emerging forces of the people”.
2. China as the Champion of Plurality: We end the era of the western and American hegemony. The western ruled the world from the 18th to the late of 20th through colonialism. After the Second World War the world was led by bilateral superpowers, US and Soviet. The Collapse of the Soviet, the world led by only one superpower, a unilateral power US. Through its comprehensive national power, cooperation with various organizations, and the creation of various networks, as well as the rising of major powers, China is the best one that drawing the world to “multilateralism”.
3. China as the Sovereign Survivor: leave us to survive as the communist power. The communist that was originated in Russia and them brought to establish in China was no longer survive in its homeland, but China. It survive through, different means, reform and opening up, and the adaptation of the name “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in New Era”. Beyond surviving is going to have influence. The Tiananmen Square event was the most threat to the survival of Communist but also the opportunity to “survive for long times”. Deng said “we could benefit from this incident”.
4. China as the Last Man Standing: the west is in decline, while we have deep pocket. In the Moa’ Era China economy was very bad through the continuous revolutions. Deng then focused on the economic development “to be rich is Glorious”. The two systems, reform and opening up, and the state-enterprises help China grows rapidly and suffered little from the 2008 global economic crisis.
5. China as the Herald of The High Frontier: we share and safeguard the global commons. Xi Jinping declared China enter the New Era and promises to take more responsibility, support the UN, proposed the new type of major powers relations, and proposed the ideas of the community of shared future of mankind.