The world media has conveniently missed it but a very interesting conference is happening in Beijing at the moment. More than 50 African head of states and ministers are participating in the first China-Africa summit.
From a pure economic perspective, this might not be a monumental event. China's trade volume with African continent is still only 20 billion dollars as opposed to, for example US. United States exported $ 43 billion of goods and imported $ 243 billion worth of goods from China in 2005. So what is the significance of this summit? I see a silent Chinese hand in a lot of things that happen these days on the world stage. Iran, North Korea, Sudan, all have certain amount of patronage from China despite the problems they are creating. Iran and Sudan are part of a very aggressive energy policy which China is following at the moment. The crisis in North Korea has give the Chinese the perfect opportunity to tell the world, and specifically the US, that from now on nothing would happen in the Pacific without their consent.This administration has accepted this reality through the six party talks. Iraq's situation has further helped Chinese assert control when they would have been more cautious otherwise. Who wants to host Omar Al-Bashir these days but China?
I cannot help but remember the scenario which Samuel Huntington writes in his famous 1992 book called Clash of Civilizations. He talks about how the next big war would start by China trying to take over the oil fields held by Vietnam in South China sea. A look around the world and this scenario doesn't look outrageous at all. China's rise with the demise of acceptance of America as the referee in the world affairs has really opened up a completely new era of the Dragon's flight.
The white hand in the picture above is not American, Russian or European...its Chinese!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment