China holds court in the global
village By David Gosset
As the Chinese renaissance unfolds and
profoundly modifies the structure of international
relations, it is the terminology of network
analysis more than the usual vocabulary of
political science which provides the tools to
apprehend the nature of China's global posture,
for while Washington explicitly pursues
leadership, the concept of centrality explains
Beijing's actions.
If, especially
protective of its sovereignty, Beijing refuses to
yield to the injunctions of any external power,
China's grand strategy does not aim to replace the
United States as the leader of the community of
nations but, in a singular attitude congenial with
the values of its civilization and the patterns of
its history, she is already one of the most
significant nodes of the global network of
politics, business and
ideas, gradually but ineluctably moving the
world's center of gravity.
Zhong,
centrality, is one most ancient common characters
and, an analogy which sheds a light on China?s
global modus operandi, its polysemy Chinese
historical and cultural context mirrors three
important measures centrality in the field of
graph theory.
Zhong has first a
well known spatial connotation. While the two
characters for Japan - riben, which
literally mean "sun's origin", the source of the
expression "Land of the Rising Sun", imply a
location in the east of the Chinese continent,
while Vietnam - Southern Viet - is named in
reference to its northern neighbor, China,
zhongguo - presents itself to the world as
the Middle Country. In the perspective of graph
theory, Sinocentrism is synonymous with a high
degree of centrality, the Middle Country is
standing as an immense geographic hub with
numerous direct links to a vast periphery.
Second, zhong can be interpreted in
a metaphoric sense as a nexus or a bridge. In the
traditional Chinese representation of the world
often referred as the Five Elements, wood, fire,
metal and water correspond to the four cardinal
points while a fifth element, earth, is associated
with the center, a medium through which the
fundamental principles are in relation.
In
this acception, zhong is the equivalent of
what network analysis defines as betweenness
centrality, where the quantity of links matters
less than the capacity to connect nodes which
would be otherwise unconnected. In that sense,
China is the Connector Country.
Third,
zhong envelops a moral dimension introduced
by The Doctrine of the Mean - Zhong
Yong, one of the Four Books which constitute
the foundations of the Confucian philosophy : "The
superior man cultivates harmony without being weak
- how firm is he in his force of character! He
stands erect in the middle without inclining to
either side - how firm is he in his force of
character!".
When network analysis
appreciates the closeness centrality of a node, it
looks at its direct or indirect simultaneous
relations with all the other nodes, it models what
is at an ethical level impartiality, a capacity to
remain relatively close with all the parties,
arguably the most important quality of an
effective mediator. This third variation on the
theme of zhong introduces to China as the Pivot
Country.
Therefore, the name China -
zhongguo - can be analyzed into three
concepts along the lines of zhong's
polysemy which respectively covers three
functions: the Middle Country, the Connector
Country and the Pivot Country.
By
definition, the Middle Country has a 360-degree
outlook and its foreign relations are
multidirectional. China does not target any
special relationship with the West nor with any
other actors, but she is at ease in an environment
where she can evolve in conjunction with a
plurality of forces. At the opposite of the Group
of Two paradigm where Beijing would enter into an
exclusive bipolar relation with the US, China both
endorses and induces multipolarity, an arrangement
in which she can maximize the advantages of its
high degree centrality.
While the US views
itself as the "indispensable nation", the
Connector Country has de facto become the
"necessary nation" of the global village, in
finance, international trade, supply chain,
tourism or education China is an unavoidable
partner, the essential catalyst for economic
growth and business activity.
Following
Deng Xiaoping's opening-up, globalization is
defined to a large extent by the interrelations
between China's transformation and the world. In
the document published by the Information Office
of the State Council in September 2011 entitled
China's peaceful development, this unprecedented
interdependence is explicitly underlined: "China
cannot develop itself in isolation from the rest
of the world, and global prosperity and stability
cannot be maintained without China."
In
diplomacy, the Connector Country functions as a
powerbroker. Able to maintain good relations with
both Iran and Israel, as well as with Tehran and
Riyadh, Beijing is increasingly perceived in the
Middle East as a factor of stability, by having
simultaneous relations with North Korea, South
Korea and the US, China is the key parameter in
the Northeast Asian equation.
In a sector
that deserves great attention, the United Nations
peacekeeping missions, the Connector Country is
playing an increasing role and brings with her
inclusiveness and impartiality.
The
Chinese idiosyncratic cultivation of centrality
contrasts with the American proactive quest for
leadership. While in the name of universal values
the West missionary zeal justifies interference
but turns out to be too often divisive, the Pivot
Country inspired by the principles of conciliation
develops what can be called a purposeful
neutrality.
In 1951, American poet and
critic Ezra Pound (1885-1972) published a new
English edition of the Zhong Yong, where
The Doctrine of the Mean became in an
insightful rendering, The Unwobbling Pivot.
Six years later, the then secretary general of the
United Nations Dag Hammarskjold, "the greatest
statesman of our century" in the words of US
president John F Kennedy, sent a letter to Pound
in which he acknowledged a strong sympathy for the
themes developed in the Confucian classic.
Since China's centrality and American
leadership operate differently on the grand
chessboard of world politics, the current mistrust
which marks the Sino-Western relations does not
have to generate sterile tensions or to escalate
into conflicts, China will be attentive to connect
with the American entrepreneurial and innovative
society while it would be a colossal strategic
miscalculation for the US to try to shape a world
which would exclude what the Chinese renaissance
has to offer. In the 20th century, interdependence
was still contingent, in the 21st century it has
imposed itself as a vital and irreversible
reality.
If technology has reduced
distance, the renewed life of the Chinese
civilization within the global village is
enlarging its horizon and invites to explore new
territories where all mankind can live in peace
and prosper. On a small planet but within an
expanding world of ideas, there is not only space
for the Chinese intelligence of centrality and the
Western urge for transformational leadership to
coexist, but a growing need for the two to
cross-fertilize.
David Gosset is
director of the Academia Sinica Europaea at China
Europe International Business School (CEIBS),
Shanghai, Beijing & Accra, and founder of the
Euro-China Forum.
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