For years, China has been known as the earth’s factory. Growing up in the late 90s early 2000s I mostly knew China because most of my clothes and favorite electronics had tags or labels that said: “Made in China”. Today, the China that I know, has a completely different face and a different position in the world as a powerful nation. It has the world’s largest army, the world’s largest population, and the world’s second-largest economy according to Nasdaq. If you asked anyone 40-50 years if they could have foreseen China’s place in today’s global power players most people would not be able to predict this change. That is mainly because just 40 years ago, China was considered to be a nation in poverty. More than 88 percent of the population was in poverty in comparison to less than one percent today according to the World Bank.
Part of what makes the US the current superpower is its military strength and presence in the world which gives it a huge voice in the most significant global political issues. As an African, I have begun to see the Chinese military and economic presence overtake that of the United States. For a long time, giving financial and humanitarian aid to emerging economies has been a way that many powerful countries use to gain political support and diplomacy globally. In the United Nations assembly, it is much easier to guarantee the vote of a poor country if they are in debt to you and the number of African countries in debt to China only grows with time. In 2018 alone China pledged $60billion to Africa (Quartz, 2018). If the African continent with a population of 1.1 billion (World Bank, 2018) acknowledges China’s presence as the global leader then they are on track to be.
China has been known as more of a selling country than a buying one but this is starting to change. Years ago when multinational companies looked to China it was only for their cheap production labor. For many years manufacturing goods in China was the primary way to cut down on costs for many companies that made the world’s favorite products. Some examples are Apple, Nike, Levi, New Balance and hundreds of others. Because of the way China’s economy grew over the years, the standard of life has drastically improved and the people have started to seek after the luxury goods that they once sold to the world. Hollywood studios now look to China to help break even on their movie releases. Tech companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google spend months trying to adjust their privacy policies to adhere to the demands of the Chinese govt to stay in that market (Sheehan, 2018). China is not a seller anymore, it’s also a buyer that is quickly becoming America’s biggest market.
To become a superpower, the world needs to embrace your culture, your language and your way of life. Economic domination has to come along with all of these influences. “For millennia, the Chinese have always held themselves in high esteem. The name of their ancient country translates as “center of the world”—their image of themselves, their country, and culture has long been viewed as the center of human civilization. For past centuries, they expected that all other people and nations would pay tribute to the Chinese and their unique culture…” (Moran et al, 2011). This culture spread goes beyond the “Made in China” tags that I saw everywhere growing up. Now, whenever I walk through an African building donated or built by the Chinese, I see writings of Mandarin everywhere; in the elevator, at the front desk, at the local airport’s terminal entrance. Everywhere I see reminders of the ever-growing presence of the emerging superpower that is China.
References
Poverty headcount ratio at $1.90 a day (2011 PPP) (% of population) | Data. data.worldbank.org. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
Population, total – Sub-Saharan Africa (2011 PPP) (% of population) | Data. data.worldbank.org. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
Harris, P. R., Moran, R. T., & Moran, S. V. (2011). Managing cultural differences. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann.
Dahir, A. L. (2018). Chinese lending to African countries jumped tenfold in the last five years. Retrieved from https://qz.com/africa/1463948/chinese-lending-to-african-countries-jumped-tenfold-in-the-last-five-years/
Sheehan, M. (2018).How Google took on China—and lost. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612601/how-google-took-on-china-and-lost/
Bajpai, P. (2020). The 5 Largest Economies In The World And Their Growth In 2020. Retrieved from https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/the-5-largest-economies-in-the-world-and-their-growth-in-2020-2020-01-22
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