China takes new path in its peaceful rise: scholars

It is possible for China, in its rise, to tread a path different from those taken in the past by Britain or the United States, because the idea of peaceful, open and inclusive development it advocates does make sense in our current world, scholars said.

Each of the rising powers in the past had advocated different concepts and ideas that answered the need of their respective times, Zheng Yongnian, a renowned scholar on China studies, said in recent published comments on Lianhe Zaobao.

But he said that China "will not, and cannot take the paths that had been taken by Britain and the United States in the past."

"It has to take a new path to rise," he wrote. "Britain, in its rise, advocated free trade. The United States advocated freedom and democracy. China is now advocating peaceful, open and inclusive development."

While the media and some of the scholars in the West have viewed China's rise with suspicion, Chinese leaders have said that it is not in China's genes to seek hegemony -- not even after its peaceful rise.

Zheng highlighted that China has made it clear that it welcomes neighboring countries to "ride on the rise of China," which can be seen from the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives and the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as well as the Silk Road Fund aimed at boosting regional connectivity and cooperation.

It is expected that China will be providing the capital and technology know-how to help its neighbors and quite a number of other countries build much-needed roads and port facilities -- largely with no strings attached.

"These initiatives taken by China can be tools to boost regional and international economic development. And they are open. It is important in the current world for development to be open," Zheng said.

China has capital, capacity and technology in infrastructural projects. It also has over capacity in some of the sectors, and these are what many other countries, especially the developing ones, need to speed up their growth.

China, faced with suspicion and trade protectionism from the West, will need its neighbors to grow their economies, too, said Zheng, adding that the infrastructural projects are expected to help boost trade between China and the neighboring countries.

"The approach is to help the developing countries grow their economy so that China's own development can be sustainable," Zheng said.

China has proposed the idea of a new paradigm for major power relations between it and the United States. It has also put forward proposals that will help other countries, especially the developing neighbors, to grow, too.

"China will be able to avoid the old paths taken in Western colonialism -- exploiting the developing countries by getting the raw materials from these markets and dumping their products here," he said.

China, the world's largest trader, is now one of the world's most open countries. It is expected to turn even more open. Some of the Western countries, however, have come from openness in the past to trade protectionism at present, even though it is a world of global and regional integration.

Zheng said that the competitiveness of a country in our current globalized world will depend on how open it can be.

Doborah Elms, executive director of Singapore-based think tank Asian Trade Center, has similar views. She said that the regional integration is also a process of economies integrating into a world of supply chains.

Supply chains are bigger and deeper than what most people think they are. The services and investment flows attached are significant, she said.

"In a world of supply chains, countries that are successful in eliminating barriers to trade for supply chain purposes will do much better than countries that don't," she said.

China has launched reforms to push forward its economic development with initiatives like the experimental free trade zones in several major cities.

More than 20 countries, including all the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), have signed up to be founding members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Scholars said this is a testament to the idea striking a chord with countries in the region.

Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, said that he saw the need for infrastructural projects on trips across the region and dismissed the suspicion harbored by some on whether China could use the railway for other purposes.

"It is not difficult to block a railway any time," he said. " China can show the benefit by launching such projects where they are welcome."