China's Leap Year

Do you think China celebrates the leap year? And do you think they take it as serious as Americans do? Let us ponder about this for just two seconds…Anyways the moment is over.

China’s own economic leap in the international community for more than three decades by far overshadows an extra day in February. Since people keep discussing “the China threat” and the “Chinese miracle.” Yet, this discourse is fairly a recent one and was not taken serious until arguably when China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO).

China ever since joining the WTO is increasingly becoming an economic juggernaut in the international community. This, in turn, has allowed the Chinese government to get people out of poverty the quickest. However, with new wealth and expectations the Chinese government is strained to keep up with the growing domestic demand of a lot of commodities. As a result, China’s foreign policy is often dominated by securing foreign resources. One of commodities in popular demand is the Apple iPad 3 scheduled to be launched in March.

Besides electronic commodities for the consumption by citizens China has to worry about their continued economic progress being able to sustain the growing population. This is somewhat similar to parenthood. Maybe I am just weird, but when people talk about countries I always personify them as people. Makes it easier for me to relate. China like a parent has to put their priorities in making enough food and money to keep having a roof over their head.

China utilizes economic progress to legitimize their governance. Without economic progress many scholars argue that the regime in China would probably have fallen apart. Interestingly enough to secure economic progress they need to secure resources to continue fueling their economic development. Thus, China’s foreign policy is actively making diplomatic relations with many countries around the developing world. These regions are often are Africa, South East Asia, and Latin America.

Africa, South East Asia, and Latin America are regions with a commodity lottery that attracts China’s hunger for resources. An analogy I hear a lot of people using is that China’s recent transformation from largely an agrarian system to an industrialize nation is of a teenager who is hungry. A teenager who is continuing to grow and needs to be fed so it can grow up properly to adulthood. If its nutrients are caught off too early on then it will hinder its growth. Because China does not want to loose their GDP growth of 8-9% any time soon, China is aggressive in importing the commodities it needs to continue to grow the way it is accustomed to.

Looking back in history China had one of the worst industrialized plans known as the “Great Leap Forward.” This promising name it felt short to the expectations of the government. Becoming known more as the “Great Leap Backward.” In spite of many errors thirty years later China finally got it right. Perhaps this how China celebrates the leap year with a “New Leap Forward” every four years since the chaotic “Great Leap Forward.”

The Bully International Problem

When you were in primary school, do you remember during recess witnessing other students bullying one or more kids? Recess to many was the eventful part of the school day. I would see the excitement and joy from everyone when recess was announced. However, I must admit I dreaded the idea of having to go to recess. I was not particularly fond of my classmates because they reminded me how alienated I really was from everyone else. I was never the popular kid so I did not participate in the bullying. Nor was I the one being bullied so I did not do anything to stop it. As a result, as a spectator I am equally responsible to the perpetuating torture of that poor kid, who till this day I ask myself, would I have done anything different?

This question is a daunting one and continues to linger in the international community: Would a country have acted differently to an event in retrospect?

Since the late Qing Dynasty, “the popular kids” aka Western powers have bullied China. Similar to a kid being bullied during recess, China was being bullied in the international arena. China was terrorized for most of the late Qing Dynasty until they finally overthrew the last emperor. This is around the time when you are the helpless kid in elementary and decide to reinvent yourself in middle school. However, during this transition if you recall correctly, everyone from elementary goes to the same middle school you end up going to. So you can change your style, but you are still you. And this is what happened to China. Even after renaming themselves the Republic of China (ROC), Western powers continued to punk it around because they knew it was still fundamentally weak and had no support from other countries, who were just spectators of their misery.

You have this continue on until you get another opportunity to reinvent yourself in high school. Then you think to yourself maybe that kid, who keeps getting bullied, will get it right this time. Sadly, those “popular kids” somehow trickle into the same school you go to. And time and time again you observe the “popular kids” bully the newly formed People’s Republic of China (PRC). During the mid-20th century, the PRC got their act together and was a bit more ambitious. They got support from the USSR. Nothing makes more of a difference in recess than having your group of friends. Somehow when you have a friend during recess the entire dynamics of how people treat you change. Especially when you are friends with the kid who intimidates the “popular kids.”

Therefore, having a powerful friend makes all the difference in the world. Until that unfaithful day when you and them do not get along and you get stuck on the same boat you were before. This unfortunate event occurred to China during the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s. So … China was left with two options: conform to the Western powers or create their own hangout spot. The answer is become friends with everyone who was not part of the Soviet or Euro-American camp: the developing countries, such as, Africa and Latin America.

Towards the end of high school you start actually identifying what your true identity is. Even though, “popular kids” exist it does not bother you anymore because you start realizing your niche. As a result, when you go to college you are aware of the “popular kids,” but unlike elementary and middle school somehow your experiences have empower you to look pass this. Thus, in the 21st century China has reinvented itself into a developing nation, who has gone through an economic transformation. Now, this is similar when you are in high school and you witnessed that even though that one kid got picked on continuously, he makes the best of the situation and outshines everyone. Goes to a college you did not expect them to go. And you are left in the dust. Then you think to yourself, what if I was nicer to him? What if I tried to be his friend earlier? Would things may have been different?

Now that China is on top of the world and can defend itself, do countries in the world regret taking advantage of China during the 20th century? Or are these countries similar to myself and ponder on the question would they have done things differently?

Social Bookmarking Soulmates

You would think with roughly 6 billion people in the world and 2 billion Internet users it should be relatively easy to find my soul mate. But … it is not.  Twenty-one years on this earth and sadly I am a hopeless case. Is it because I have high standards? Or is it because I am not searching in the right places? Whatever the answer may be I am sure many of us have a hard time answering this to ourselves. So rather than self-loathing about this dilemma I am going to artificially create a relationship with dan maertens because I can. Also, it is one of those things that you may be single, but at least you have a group of friends who share your same interest. Dan is one of them. Although, he is not aware we are friends per se I have loved a million people from afar.

Since being an undergrad requires you to be an incognito ninja it is safe to assume that I have mastered the art of stalking people. If you are not aware of it yet, it is one of my work-study jobs on top of everything else I have to do at this university. But enough about me, like a teenage girl, who found her soul mate I too have a boy I want to share with you guys. Like I mentioned before his name is Dan (my nickname to him). From his profile I am making the best-educated guest about his interest by looking at his top tags. It seems like he is interested in Sino-African relations. This is one area I am not quite familiar with, but similar to a teenage girl I think I am going to read the things he reads to get closer to him. You guys do know what I am referring to, right? Like when you see a girl in middle school start emulating the things the guy she likes in the hopes he will notice her.

Anyways he is quite active in his mining of Sino-African relation data. He has about 24,412 total bookmarks and annotations. But to be fair he has been doing this since March 17, 2009. On the other hand, I am new to this scene, so give me a break. During his online activity he has gotten one fan. In other words, I have competition. Moreover, he has joined two other groups, but they are not related to what I am interested in: Asia. I think I am starting to see that he gravitates more towards Africa as his core interested. However, what relationship doesn’t have their difference.

Throughout his frequent habit to use the social bookmarking interface he has found a lot of interesting things about China (besides just African content). I was pleasantly pleased that he had found something about Sino-Latin American relation. However, the link is broken to the actual site that held the content, which is a bit of a disappointment. Other than that, everything else is more catered towards Sino-African. Yet, I think the biggest gem I found from this is that the old China post he has tagged have other people tagging them. Yay for me finding more friends.

Trifecta

Hello World

Most blogs are just a random collection of unorganized information about someone's mundane life, which you never wanted to know about. To my knowledge, everyday they tell you more tedious details until you just become detached from the entire subject matter. As a result, you end up with a lot of floating blogs without much purpose or direction. My blog will attempt to be the exact opposite. I am challenging myself to write about Chinese international affairs in the most fascinating approach I can think of, which is a chronological reflection of how I understand Chinese international affairs in an anonymous blog
.

By no means am I an expert on Chinese international affairs, but my credentials are sufficient enough to analyze the rapid rise of China. Considering I have studied the language, traveled to China, and enrolled in international relations courses during my tenure at my respected institution. This blog is intended to explore and familiarize people who have a limited knowledge on a country that is becoming a global leader (think of it like the rise of sleeping dragon). Furthermore, this blog will utilize a lot of imagery and analogies to make the subject of international relations more relatable to people’s daily lives. Therefore, I plan to personify countries like if they are somehow a reflection of people we may have encountered.  Although this blog will inevitably reference academic journals, Chinese and American media sources, and other outlets it will be explained for a general audience to understand how China perceive itself in a globalized world. The understanding and prediction of China’s current and future general behavior in international affairs as stated before will chronicle my own comprehension throughout this semester (wish me luck).

Under this blog experiment, I hope to gain insight on how Chinese see their foreign policy and their place in the world different from non-Chinese (and also see what you guys think, do you agree with my interpretation or not?). The variables that will be conducted (because … you know I have to reinforce what I say) are looking at Chinese policies, principles, party congress, worldview and national identity. By understanding these variables, the potential of understanding the values China incorporated into their policies that allowed them to develop into influential juggernaut will help outsiders discover key elements necessary to understand China. This will guarantee a minimal bias perspective on Chinese international affairs. In addition, I will draw upon my own travels to China to contextualize how Chinese citizens see their place in the world and the domestic affairs.

My main goal for this blog is to create an opportunity for those who are interested in Chinese international affairs to learn about it more informally. To accomplish this, a lot of unnecessary jargon will be omitted to make it more accessible to people. In both the United States and China, the media explores the role of the Chinese government in succeeding or lacking in shaping international affairs (I may refer to them as ‘the haters’). In the United States I will explore that further by looking at U.S. propaganda of China and vice-versa. I will be referencing both American and Chinese news articles that seem to explore the Chinese phenomena in recent years. Finally, I will get a chance to interact and ask questions of Chinese and American students and faculty, where I hope I can find out more about their perspective and their relationship China (validating that I am not crazy when I say the things I say). The principal goal of this blog as commented earlier, is to sharpen the readers’ understanding of China’s present and future view on their leading role in international affairs. So laugh, cry and learn with me as I tackle this from the horns like a Spanish bull-fighter (China is the bull by the way).

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Profile

Ever found yourself surfing the web for no perfectly good reason? And then … trying to justify yourself the countless hours you have spent. Later, you come to the realization that your justification can only truly be reasoned by procrastination. Or better yet, my favorite reasoning, which is stalking people via the net. I think it is safe to assume many of us practice this type of behavior on a daily basis and it is, sadly one of my guilty pleasures.

As a result, I often put my talents of stalking people to good use. I will admit I have gotten better at it (or it really has just gotten easier) with the evolution from MySpace to Facebook. By the virtue of being born into a millennium generation I think many of us have perfected this skill differently. Some of us have mastered it in “Facebook stalking” people we are interested in. Others stalk famous people. One form or the other it is inherently a human characteristic of us to be curious of other people.

My curiosity of others often manifests from my aspiration to emulate them (either looks, speech, or other random quality I like about them). As a result, via my curiosity I further my own personal development. Thus, I am pleased to present I found someone who shares my interest (its almost like unrequited love). Although, he (I am assuming it is a he) and I are interested in the same discipline and is a PhD student in Political Science, which means he is more qualified to talk about Chinese foreign affairs. Yet even in the face of adversity (or in this case my own stupidity) I will persevere (partially because I am stubborn).

From the little I know of my anonymous PhD blogger friend I think I like him. I may not know him (and keep in mind know very little about him). I think I like how he is so personable in his blog and his ideas about what a blog is. The way he sees his role in the blog is somewhat inspirational when he says:

“I understand this blog as an instrument to ‘archive’ my ideas, both to get my head free and to lay the foundation for the development of more complex thoughts.”

After I read this I felt like it really resonated with what I want to accomplish with my own blog. I am happy to know that I am not crazy. There is someone else out there on the net that is doing something similar to me. We both have interest in international relations in East Asia. However, the only drawback about this anonymous person I am admiring from afar is that he was once active for a long time and now is just sorta just left his blog end on May 2011. I really find it a shame to let his insights go to waste, especially when a resource of his caliber is rare to find. I enjoyed to read his archive but mainly these two blogs entries (1, 2). They are probably the most relevant to China’s international affairs because recently China is building up their army.

Although, I think his entries are insightful it is probably still too academic for the general audience. So I am trying to find a balance between being informal about the content of international relations but not over simplify it either. Despite, this PhD blogger is not as active as before I am pretty sure I can find him again or someone similar to him. 

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Voice Critique

Dear fellow blog readers,

I am sorry to inform you guys that I had to leave my admirations for my PhD student in political science for a more radical group of bandits. Won’t you agree that this is a bit more romantic? I mean seriously, this makes a more epic story of an undergraduate student (that’s me) jumping on the bandwagon of ‘China lovers.’ Even more surprising is that my group of bandits really do go out of their way to not only add their own commentaries about Chinese affairs; but also introduce two perspectives from different articles. Dare I say it, it is faith!

From the many editors and authors this group of bandits has the one I am going to stalk more frequently is going to be DeWang (Why you may ask? … “The world may never know”). Even I must admit to psychoanalyze his writing habits are a bit creepy, but because that is what psychotic people do it just feels like one of those things you don’t question and just do I suppose.

I feel like generally speaking his writing style uses to some extent side comments, metaphor, imagery, rhetorical questions, and witty comments. Furthermore, he makes a good usage of hyperlinks, quotations and parenthesis to emphasize what he’s attempting to convey.

CASE #1: “The Economist, it is time for a new editorial overhaul”

Like many of us DeWang utilizes hyperlinks (for example: “The Economist recently announced a dedicated weekly section on China”) as a dynamic tool to make what he’s talking about relevant and accessible to his readers (which is much appreciated). It’s interesting that DeWang hyperlinks the word “announced” rather than “The Economist,” but his decision is justifiable because the word “announced” is the relevant topic about that sentence. Moreover, he neglects to italicize The Economist even though it is a newspaper (was he just lazy to italicize, you be the judge).

He also incorporates in this post direct quotation from a speaker and isolates it from his own paragraph to feature it. This visual representation helps to identify a break in the narration from DeWang to someone else.

This sentence within this post also caught my attention:

“In my view, the extra attention they give to ‘China’ as a topic is hardly going to help Westerners’ understanding of China.”

How he singles out the word “China” to my understanding is more like looking for the meaning what “China” is. Rather than the obvious answer: A country. Even in the context of this sentence his voice emerges pretty noticeable in his discontent of how The Economist perpetuates Westerners’ misunderstanding of China.

Lastly, another section within his blog post where he shows side remarks is in:

“The Economist’s coverage of China is bigoted, as exemplified by their debut article – which I am rebutting in this post (my rebuttal on the right).”

I like how he reinforces his discontent in the parenthesis and in the en dash his transition from semi-academic language to a more disagreeing language reinforced by his own personal authority figure.

CASE #2: “South China Sea, two opposing views from Philipines on the U.S. Asia ‘pivot’”

In this post you see his cynical and witty voice come through:

“Geopolitics is a funny game, and us mere mortals simply have no idea what the true reality is.”

I like the humor in the fact that he mentions “geopolitics” can be seen as a game for amusement and that ordinary people have no idea what it is. He further adds his distinct humorous voice in the imagery (“...two giants tugging…”).

Lastly in his metaphor in the following sentences:

“Imagine two elephants in a room with a little mouse. Sadly, the reality is it’s much more likely that the little mouse gets stepped on. (Wait, are elephants really afraid of mouse?)”

He defines it in an amusing manner that in the end he jokes and questions the validity of elephants being afraid to mice.

Overall, DeWang is an amusing character and likes to play with the diction of his posts from being academic to uh … less academic to say the least. He’s transformed a generally boring topic to something that may enrage the reader of how nonchalantly he drops his strong opinions. And oddly you want to read more. 

China's History (In Brief)

Before we jump into recent Chinese international affairs I think an overview of China’s global upcoming would serve justice (for those who aren’t as familiar). Before the modern People’s Republic of China (PRC) was formed in 1949, China was a string of dynasties and political turmoil.  

CASE I: The Qing Dynasty

The last dynasty was the Qing Dynasty that fell in 1912. In the late years of the Qing Dynasty it was politically weak. So it came to no surprise to many people when the Republic of China (ROC) substituted it.

Reasons:

The Qing Dynasty could no longer centralize power nor did anyone take China seriously anymore. The Western powers (Russia, UK, Germany, etc.) started to divide China into districts for themselves and made the rule of the Qing Dynasty illegitimate. As a result, many of the unfair treaties (like loosing Hong Kong, Macau, parts of Shanghai) that hindered humiliations of China were the legacies that are present even today are arguably things China continues to attempt to correct.

CASE II: The Republic of China (ROC)

After the fall of the Qing Dynasty the ROC governed China. However, similar to the previous government, the ROC was weak. Reasons that attribute to this failure are its inability to gain support internally. Consequently, China went through a spiral of internal chaos. The division of regions divided between areas ruled by landlords and government officials took China to a similar era in the USA known as the “Wild, Wild, West.” Therefore, the ROC in the long run (to make this story short) due to the ROC’s infectiveness they get displaced by the PRC.

Reasons:

The ROC unfortunately was a weak experiment of new model of governance in China, which explains a lot of their ability to govern. Since China had a history of long dynasties. Later the ROC got their act together (partially due to Western support, who as some scholars say used the ROC as a puppet government). This angered many Chinese patriots who wanted to fix the ills from the Qing Dynasty and so people go their arms up and attacked the ROC for being on the side of the imperialist. To who to some respect were the ones who destroyed China’s order. Consequently, the ROC gets expelled to Taiwan (after the ROC and PRC fought for years). So now you now know why there are two Chinas (yay).

CASE III: People’s Republic of China (PRC)

In the beginning of the birth of the PRC in 1949, the PRC was trying to fix everything that ever went wrong since the Qing Dynasty until now (but it was a lot and they also realized they were poor). So with no money they realized they were still dependent on foreign assistance. And it only made it worst that they saw Japan becoming everything they wanted to be.

So you may ask yourself, what did the Chinese do? Well the Chinese before they can arguably fix how imperialist countries wronged them they had to get in a position of power. So over the decades China worked hard to create a new world order and at the same time integrate themselves in how you play the game (similar to being around the popular kids and you just got to learn how to play their game and once you are a member you can change it). Even though, China keeps using a lot of language saying they are all about peace it is noticeable to the world that their agenda are to correct how someone in their minds exploited them.

Reasons:

I have come to this conclusion with China demanding Hong Kong to revert back to China (taking it away from the UK) in 1998. A long with China infiltrating the IMF, UN, and other international institutions. Now most recently China is in a position of power so they have the world at their fingertips. So China can either take revenge upon everyone who wronged them or forgive and forget. This is where we are at (in a nutshell), where will they take their position of power? 

Voice Post

Dear fellow blog readers,

I am sorry to inform you guys that I had to leave my admirations for my PhD student in political science for a more radical group of bandits. Won’t you agree that this is a bit more romantic? I mean seriously, this makes a more epic story of an undergraduate student (that’s me) jumping on the bandwagon of ‘China lovers’ (Go figure~). Even more surprising is that my group of bandits (Yes, I’ve claimed them similar to how Christopher Columbus claimed the ‘New World’) really do go out of their way to not only add their own commentaries about Chinese affairs; but also introduce two perspectives from different articles. Dare I say it, it is faith! The perfect group of people to start stalking from afar (ahhh ^.^~).

From the many editors and authors this group of bandits have the one I am going to stalk more frequently is going to be DeWang (Why you may ask? … “The world may never know”). Even I must admit to psychoanalyze his writing habits are a bit creepy, but because that is what psychotic people or stalkers do it just feels like one of those things you don’t question and just do I suppose.

I feel like generally speaking his writing style uses to some extent side comments, metaphor, imagery, rhetorical questions, and witty comments. Furthermore, he makes a good usage of hyperlinks, quotations and parenthesis to emphasize what he’s attempting to convey.

CASE #1: “The Economist, it is time for a new editorial overhaul”

Like many of us DeWang utilizes hyperlinks (for example: “The Economist recently announced a dedicated weekly section on China”) as a dynamic tool to make what he’s talking about relevant and accessible to his readers (which is much appreciated). It’s interesting that DeWang hyperlinks the word “announced” rather than “The Economist,” but his decision is justifiable because the word “announced” is the relevant topic about that sentence. Moreover, he neglects to italicize The Economist even though it is a newspaper (was he just lazy to italicize, you be the guess).

He also incorporates in this post direct quotation from a speaker and isolates it from his own paragraph (almost like featuring it on its own). This visual representation helps (I assume) to identify to break in the narration from DeWang to the person who is being quoted.

This sentence within this post also caught my attention:

“In my view, the extra attention they give to ‘China’ as a topic is hardly going to help Westerners’ understanding of China.”

How he singles out the word “China” to my understanding is more like looking for the meaning what “China” is. Rather than the obvious answer: A country. Even in the context of this sentence his voice emerges pretty noticeable in his discontent of how The Economist perpetuates Westerners’ misunderstanding of China.

Lastly, another section within his blog post where he shows side remarks is in:

“The Economist’s coverage of China is bigoted, as exemplified by their debut article – which I am rebutting in this post (my rebuttal on the right).”

I like how he reinforces his discontent in the parenthesis and in the en dash his transition from semi-academic language to a more disagreeing language reinforced by his own personal authority figure.

CASE #2:  “South China Sea, two opposing views from Philipines on the U.S. Asia ‘pivot’”

In this post you see his cynical and witty voice come through:

“Geopolitics is a funny game, and us mere mortals simply have no idea what the true reality is.”

I like the humor in the fact that he mentions “geopolitics” can be seen as a game for amusement and that ordinary people have no idea what it is. He further adds his distinct humorous voice in the imagery (“...two giants tugging…”). And lastly in his metaphor in the following sentences:

“Imagine two elephants in a room with a little mouse. Sadly, the reality is it’s much more likely that the little mouse gets stepped on. (Wait, are elephants really afraid of mouse?)”

He defines it in an amusing manner that in the end he jokes and questions the validity of elephants being afraid to mice.

Overall, DeWang is an amusing character and likes to play with the diction of his posts from being academic to uh … less academic to say the least. He’s transformed a generally boring topic to something that may enrage the reader of how nonchalantly he drops his strong opinions. And oddly you feel reassured that he’s somewhat right.