The financial crisis that exploded in September 2008 transformed a benign global political and economic context into something more malign (Razzed Sally, 2011). On one hand, the end of 2011 sees the lethargy of Western economies continue with their futures uncertain. On the other, China has rebounded quickly, leading other east-Asian countries out of the crisis.
To identify the presence of causal links between the global downturn and China's positive performance and international outcomes more generally, the author uses some of the analytic tools of theoretical research from both David Singer's Level of Analysis-model and the Wanting truce-actor model. 1 . China - one of the winners in the 2008- 2011 economic downturn For more than a decade, China has been following a path of evolutionary reform, crucial to which is the establishment of the socialist market economy. It is strikingly different from the Soviet model and models of Western countries.
The new system respects the role of market mechanisms yet emphasizes the government's position regarding strong macro-regulatory functions. Its success is exemplified by China's gross domestic product (GAP) growing at an average of 9 per cent (%) per year over the period (CIA The World Fact Book). When the crisis broke out, recognized to be in 2008, China's GAP grew by 8. 7%, overcoming the target outlined by Premier Went Ojibwa. In 2009, China, which eclipsed Japan as the world's second-biggest economy, saw growth of 10. 7% in the final three months compared to the previous year.
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The Chinese economy grew a further 10% in the final three months of 2010 (Telegraph, 2010). And beyond trade and investment, China has become a major creditor nation. These achievements show that, for China, with its unique and successful path to development, the gains from the global economic downturn have so far Justified the kiss. Locating the causal link between China's gains and the current financial crisis From a top-down approach, the Western origins of the current crisis have raised serious questions about the future international roles of the US and its dollar.
It has engendered a situation of optimism among Asian nations, in sharp contrast to the ongoing Western gloom. The financial crisis thus seems to give China a golden opportunity to assert her position. Moreover, since China is currently less affected by the financial crisis due to its more closed financial system, other nations have also urged China to lend a greater financial hand such as increasing its imports. In a bottom-up approach, China's post-crisis recovery is not only occurring within this volatile climate, it is, importantly, changing the balance of power in the world as well.
The Chinese government has unleashed a wave of bank lending and $586 billion for monetary stimulus to help compensate for the global slowdown. According to experts, the challenge at present is to ensure an unstable asset market does not transpire. Western companies such as the mining outfit ROI Tint saw a 49% increase in Chinese demand for iron ore last quarter. Likewise car manufactures such as Ford and BMW are all looking to China to help drive growth this year.
The recent visit of French President Nicolas Karakas to sell Airbus planes and two nuclear plants to China, as well as the British counterpart David Cameraman's trade mission of a Emma deal to supply and service Jet engines for a Chinese airline, have helped boost the two European economies' exports at a time when labor discontent back none was rife (Inman & Winter, 2010). Placing the issue into the Waiting Constructivism of circular causal flow, the financial crisis, global recession and China's remarkable covers has produced a big shift in the world's most important state-to-state relationship.
True, there is a long-term tendency that China will continue to expand. Yet the current financial crisis will not dramatically facilitate China's rise especially if the cost is ostracize the United States. China's top priority is thus its own economic development as well as regional stability Owing Men, 2009). Why? First of all, since China has been among the biggest beneficiaries of the existing system, there is every indication that she wants to pursue a policy of amelioration rather than abandonment.
China, instead, will have to work with the US and other 620 members to prove this and provide other public goods that the world economy desperately needs. Furthermore, the financial crisis is a challenge for both the US and China. The fact that China is the largest owner of US debt serves to emphasize that the two's interests are deeply entwined. China needs to help the United States to secure its own future projects. Finally and most importantly, China has neither the ambition nor the capability to challenge the leadership of the United States.
Both the cost and sis are too high for Beijing to commit itself to so many international issues as the US, with her recent campaigns of Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and North Korea still unresolved. Analysis of the direct but complex causal link Over the past 18 months, Beijing has seen how dependence on Western markets and the crisis can produce direct high levels of risk at home. China's development is led by exports. Chinese foreign trade had decreased by 25. 9% in May 2009 compared to the same period of the previous year (You Wingding, 2010).
In terms of the length of the causal link, China could become an epicenter of a new crisis if its asset bubble rows unrestrained. China's asset bubble bursting would place East Asia, and ultimately the rest of the world, on a double-edged sword. In which case, China would become part of the problem rather than the solution. Despite the fact that China is prospering, it is incapable of playing the leading role the United States has been playing in international affairs. There are also some other intervening variables, which determine the causal link between China and the current economic crisis.
If China's rise is one of the most important stories of this new century, China's appetite for energy is one of its most striking subplots. By 2008, China was consuming 43% of the world's coal, 19% of its hydroelectric power, and 10% of its oil. If current trends continue, China will overtake the US as the world's largest energy consumer in the next few years. China therefore must have a long-term plan for their energy security in order to sustain their progress from the current global crisis.
Moreover, if economic power can be called 'hard power,' then what China most needs to improve is its 'soft power' through demonstrating that it wants to take on an active role and support multilateral diplomacy. China is a country with 5,000 years of civilization and is aware that its former image of being a 'responsible power' is not a threat to the global diplomatic order (Lardy, 2010) Consequently, recent Chinese efforts to address this are discernible in its increased participation in an array of global security issues, trot the Six-Pa KS to the diplomatic Otto arts in Iran and Sudan.
At the same time the number of Chinese senior positions in international organizations has grown, such as in the United Nations, World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization. In the Chinese engage, the diagram for the word 'crisis' is written using two Mandarin characters - one meaning 'threat', the other 'opportunity'. Not coincidently, the global financial crisis of 2008-2011 presents China with opportunities as well as challenges in its attempt to alter its role in power relations, currently being redefined by the global situation.
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