Odisha News, Odisha Latest news, Odisha Daily - OrissaPOST
  • Home
  • Trending
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Feature
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • More..
    • Odisha Special
    • Editorial
    • Opinion
    • Careers
    • Sci-Tech
    • Timeout
    • Horoscope
    • Today’s Pic
  • Video
  • Epaper
  • News in Odia
  • Home
  • Trending
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Feature
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • More..
    • Odisha Special
    • Editorial
    • Opinion
    • Careers
    • Sci-Tech
    • Timeout
    • Horoscope
    • Today’s Pic
  • Video
  • Epaper
  • News in Odia
No Result
View All Result
OrissaPOST - Odisha Latest news, English Daily -
No Result
View All Result

China Misses Opportunity

Updated: July 21st, 2020, 07:30 IST
in Edit
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare on Linkedin

Arvind Subramanian


Until recently, China was unmistakably trying to be a hegemon in the image of the United States, increasingly complementing its growing hard power with soft power. But China seems to have missed its opportunity to build a serious rival to, or even supplant, the existing world economic order fashioned by the US following World War II.

Also Read

Double-engine PMO

3 days ago
NEET

Let Them Be

6 days ago

All the elements of success seemed to be falling into place for China. It launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a transnational infrastructure investment program intended to define a vision of a China-led, post-Bretton Woods world, much as the US Marshall Plan did for the post-1945 order. China also aggressively promoted the renminbi as an international currency, and persuaded the IMF to include it in the basket of reserve currencies underpinning Special Drawing Rights (the IMF’s unit of account) far sooner than was justified.

China also sought to take over leadership of international institutions; it currently heads five. It pushed to increase its voice in existing bodies such as the World Bank and IMF. And where it felt stymied, it established its own, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank.

The COVID-19 pandemic offered China an opportunity to cement this strategy of remaking the world economic order on its terms. It’s worth considering the possibilities.

For starters, as the world’s largest long-term creditor to low-income countries, China could have proactively and unilaterally declared a moratorium on all debt service owed to it. And it could have gone further. As Scott Morris and his colleagues at the Center for Global Development have shown, China’s lending terms – interest, grace period, and maturity – are much more onerous than those offered by the World Bank and its concessional lending arm, the International Development Association. China could simply have promised to eliminate this wedge.

Furthermore, it could have provided unconditional short-term liquidity – in both renminbi and dollars – to developing and other economies facing major capital outflows. One irony of the post-2000 world is that the country most able to provide dollar liquidity is China, owing to its $3 trillion-plus in dollar reserves. The People’s Bank of China could have extended swap lines to all its developing-world counterparts.

Regarding trade, China could have offered freer market access to poorer countries ravaged by COVID-19. It could also have ramped up production of essential medical supplies to fight the coronavirus assuring their high quality and offering to make them available to any country via the WHO at concessional prices. Such generous intervention would have shown that China was offering an alternative to US-led institutions.

Instead, China’s recent actions have undermined its global aims. The geographic range and intensity of the Chinese regime’s belligerence are now familiar, with the ever-growing list of targets including Xinjiang, Tibet, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, the South China Sea, the Philippines, Australia, Europe, the US, and Canada. And instead of being transparent regarding the origins of COVID-19, China has persuaded the WHO to connive with its own obfuscation. The puzzle is why China is choosing aggression over magnanimity, or even over mere inaction. After all, its current leaders probably view America as a declining power that will soon organically vacate the hegemonic position that China seeks to occupy. If so, just as Deng Xiaoping, the father of China’s reforms 40 years ago, advised geopolitical patience until China became stronger, a Dengian strategy today would be to wait for the US to become weaker.

The obvious answer to the puzzle is Xi Jinping and the regime that he both represents and has helped to create. But key elements of China’s earlier strategy – including the BRI and reserve-currency status for the renminbi – were Xi’s own signature gambits. So, what’s driving the reversal?

Perhaps China’s leaders once again see the world through a victim’s lens. As they perceive it, the powerful West had kept a weak China in check since the early 1800s. Now that the roles are reversed, the regime believes it is time to correct historical injustices. With Xi’s aggressive insecurity having replaced Deng’s calm confidence, China now places a premium on settling its borders and returning to the glory days of the Middle Kingdom.

A darker possibility for the rest of the world is that China not only seeks historical justice, but is also gazing beyond its borders. It is in the nature of repressive, autocratic regimes to believe only in the currency of fear and hard power. In this view, Xi is merely reverting to type, following his idol Mao Zedong’s dictum that political power – both internally and externally – grows from the barrel of a gun. So, perhaps China’s recent aggression is not a bug but rather a feature of its strategy for supplanting the US.

In her book The Guns of August, American historian Barbara Tuchman memorably captured the shift in geopolitical power from the UK to the US by saying that a strong America became an enfeebled UK’s “larder, arsenal, and bank.” In the wake of the pandemic, China could have achieved something similar vis-à-vis the US-led global order by becoming the development bank, central bank, and medical supplier to the world. By choosing unprovoked aggression over enlightened generosity, China has squandered the historic opportunity and possibly also revealed its true character. Soft power, China appears to believe, is for wimpy democracies. Scorpions sting. The world must take steps to respond.

The author is a former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India.

Tags: Arvind SubramanianBelt and Road InitiativeSoft power
ShareTweetSendShare
Suggest A Correction

Enter your email to get our daily news in your inbox.

 

OrissaPOST epaper Sunday POST OrissaPOST epaper

Click Here: Plastic Free Odisha

#MyPaperBagChallenge

Sarfraz Ahmad

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Mrutyunjaya Behera

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Sipra Mishra

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Narendra Kumar

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

D Rama Rao

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Vandana Singh

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ankita Balabantray

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ramakanta Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Manas Samanta

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Kamana Singh

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Bijswajit Pradhan

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Rajashree Manasa Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Archana Parida

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Anshuman Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Subhajyoti Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Priyabrata Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Spinoj Pattnaik

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Arya Ayushman

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Matrumangal Jena

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Anasuya Sahoo

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Debasis Mohanty

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Tapaswini Mallick

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Ipsita

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Nishikant Rout

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Pragyan Priyambada

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Anup Mahapatra

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Archit Mohapatra

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Pitabas Tripathy

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Akriti Negi

December 12, 2019
#MyPaperBagChallenge

Rajashree Pravati Mohanty

December 12, 2019

Archives

Editorial

Proof To Vote

Vote
June 30, 2025

Months ahead of the Assembly polls in Bihar, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on 28 June launched a ‘special...

Read more

Genesis of Jana Sangh

AAKAR PATEL
June 29, 2025

We marked the 50th anniversary of the Emergency a few days ago. Another anniversary, this time the 75th, went relatively...

Read more

Double-engine PMO

June 28, 2025

Since February, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has been operating for the first time with two full principal secretaries, P.K....

Read more

Let Them Be

NEET
June 25, 2025

A17-year-old girl was beaten to death by her father for not getting good score in a mock test for the...

Read more
  • Home
  • State
  • Metro
  • National
  • International
  • Business
  • Editorial
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
Developed By Ratna Technology

© 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST

  • News in Odia
  • Orissa POST Epaper
  • Video
  • Home
  • Trending
  • Metro
  • State
  • Odisha Special
  • National
  • International
  • Sports
  • Business
  • Editorial
  • Entertainment
  • Horoscope
  • Careers
  • Feature
  • Today’s Pic
  • Opinion
  • Sci-Tech
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs

© 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST

    • News in Odia
    • Orissa POST Epaper
    • Video
    • Home
    • Trending
    • Metro
    • State
    • Odisha Special
    • National
    • International
    • Sports
    • Business
    • Editorial
    • Entertainment
    • Horoscope
    • Careers
    • Feature
    • Today’s Pic
    • Opinion
    • Sci-Tech
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Jobs

    © 2024 All rights Reserved by OrissaPOST