China as important as eyeing the US
There are few truisms in international relations, but one that academics won’t disagree on is that foreign policy begins at home. How powerful a country is, and a nation’s stature in the international arena, rests on its economic and political fundamentals.
US academic David Shambaugh defined six dimensions of power: perceptual, diplomatic, global governance, economic, cultural and security. In the international arena a country needs to first be seen by others as powerful, its diplomacy must be executed effectively, it needs to shoulder more than its fair share of international governance duties, its economy needs to be sustainably strong, its culture must be attractive to others, and all of this must be backed up by a strong military. The US is the global superpower because it ranks top in all six dimensions. It is perceived and respected as the most powerful nation on the globe. It has the largest diplomatic corps, supported by the deepest expertise across fields from political economists to global health experts.
It is the largest funder of international organisations such as the UN and its peacekeeping missions. The US has universities that lead cuttingedge research and its popular culture in music and movies is followed by youth across the globe. Uncle Sam backs this up with by far the most powerful military force the world has seen. China is painfully aware that it falls short on a few of these dimensions.
Chinese pop culture does not have a wide following outside its borders, only a few of its universities lead in select fields of research. Its diplomatic corps does not have the depth and breadth of expertise of the US state department.
What China has in its favour is that it is the largest trading nation and has a thriving economy that will before long become the largest in the world. It is one of the most ancient civilisations, with a strong identity, and it has the largest standing army. Where USUSSR superpower rivalry dominated Cold War global politics, and proxy wars were fought in the third world, from Vietnam to Angola, US-China rivalry will dominate international politics for decades to come.
The US, Japan, Australia and India have formed the quadrilateral security dialogue, the Quad, with parallel military exercises as their opening move. China enlisted the support of Russia and Iran. China, Japan, Australia, India and the US are each other’s largest trading partners. India and China are members of the Brics bloc, as is SA. Global trade interconnectedness means it is in no-one’s interest to rock the boat too much as everyone is on the same boat.
With so much at stake and interests so intertwined, China watching, from think-tank presentations easily accessible on the internet to written articles, has leapt from being an obscure academic discipline to a popular pastime. Given China’s rising importance and the contest between it and the US, what is SA’s international relations strategy given the new
“winds of change” in global politics? How deep and broad is the expertise of the departments of international relations & cooperation and trade, industry & competition on China and Asia’s regional international relations?
How deep and broad is SA’s expertise on China in its civil society and business communities? Do political parties and business communities have discussion documents examining the ramifications for SA of the rise of Chinese economic interests in both resources and the consumer market? Foreign policy begins at home. Effective foreign policy-making and execution is not only the job of the government. It ought to be a priority that the SA government, opposition parties, civil society, academia and business community stop looking at China as an exotic other, and seriously consider how we should evolve to engage with international relations into the next decade.