China and economic war

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Finally, you (PGIR4) now have access to our unit web page. Please log into Moodle and go to our unit web page to download both documents. My expectation is for you to read both documents and acquaint yourself with the content.  Like I said in my last post, the hiccup was technical.

The topic for this week is realism. The aim is to determine whether we can use one of the strands of realism to explain the rise of China. Elman in the book titled 'Security studies: an introduction' edited by Williams discussed the 6 different strands of realists research traditions. The research traditions are based on different assumptions and has different explanations for causes and consequences of conflict.

Rise and fall realism is an interesting strand. It talks about the rules and practices of the international system as being determine by the wishes of the leading state according to Elman. Rayanne and Nancy talked about the different empires and states that made history worth reading. Babylon, Persia, Germany and others can be used as examples to understand the rise and fall realism logic.

Rome was an empire that featured prominently in the new testament. From our reading of the bible we are aware that the Romans ruled over much of the Middle East and North Africa. They also established their hegemonic rule on the Eurasian continent. Rome rose and fell in line with the rise and fall realism logic.

Going back to our case study, we are now in a period where we are witnessing the rise of China. According to the rise and fall realism logic, China is the challenging power. China has gone past Organski's first stage and is now somewhere in between the second and the third stage. That means it is experiencing a transitional growth in power and will soon reach power maturity. This understanding is supported by the video we watched in class today.
  
I would like you to read my previous article on the updated chapter by Elman and Jensen. Like I said in class, the updated version of the eBook edited by Williams is in the library. Currently, it is on loan to Bopi and Kasanda.

The updated version talks about preventive and challenger war. Thus, the question now is; will China fight a challenger war with the US? Will the US launch a preventive war to maintain the status quo?
From my perspective, I think China has already launched a challenger war. The war is not a traditional military war but is an economic war. China is using its economic might to influence many countries in the region and globally.

Australia has tighten rules on foreign investment in electricity infrastructure and agricultural law according to Smyth from the Financial Times. Their main reason is the growing Chinese influence in business, politics and society. Australian electoral returns showed that companies owned by business people with links to China donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to political parties ahead of the 2016 federal elections.

Going back to around 2011, China's Bright Food bought a 75% stake in Australia's Manassen Foods according to BBC. The article also stated that the state-owned firm also held unsuccessful talks with US nutrition retailers GNC and Australian sugar producer SCR. In 2017, the company announced the acquisition of New Zealand Dairy Company and all its assets.

In 2017, Australia was uneasy over Chinese influence in PNG. ABC news correspondent Eric Tlozek wrote about the increasing infrastructure investment in PNG. He said Australia's defence and diplomatic community have privately expressed unease about China's growing influence in PNG. The Chinese government companies are building roads in the Highlands and to the Lae airport. They are also redeveloping Lae's port.

The video said in 2015 Tsinghua University in Beijing passed MIT and was rate as the number one university in the world for engineering. Paulk also talked about the survey by U.S. News and World Report which labelled Tsinghua as the world's top school for both engineering and computer science. That means our roads and bridges will be constructed by some of the most smartest engineers in the world. Such a rating is a boost to the credibility of Chinese construction companies.

The video also helps us to make sense of the four internal processes that contributes to the growth of the rising challenger. In particular the fourth process on military, economic and technological innovation. China has rapidly changed over the past 20 years.


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