(Get Answer) – China and Europe China and EuropeIntroductionThe rise of china has become one of the most important things taking place in the world. Policy makers and international relations scholars in the world have made a lot of debates due to the china rise. The history of the Chinese government stretches over years but its not short of powerful dynasties. Most of the continents have perceived the Chinese government as great power in the 1940s, a perception which was not based on the strength of china. This perception was because of the efforts which were directed from United States, which was meant for enhancing the status of china as a great power. This was in order for china to counterbalance other countries which had great power like the Japanese government (Blankert, p. 50).Chinese perceptions concerning china’s rise threatChina’s rise has raised concern with many policy makers because of the various threats that have emerged from this. For example china’s economic threat, military threat, energy threat and civilization threat among others. The perception of china being a threat has been in existence for quite a period of time. For example, in 1949, the United States perceived china as a great enemy. The fact that china’s economy is opening up to the outside world can be a threat or an opportunity to most of the countries that surrounds it depending on their view. China should not be underestimated at any point because it has large reserves for foreign exchange and surpluses in trade. Its increased capability to manufacture various types of products made it to be ranked among the top leading countries in world economy (Xing, p.59). As pointed out by lardy in his book “The Economic Rise of China: Threat or Opportunity?” china’s current market not only presents great opportunities for most of the businesses in Europe but also that jobs that would preferably move to china are no longer in united states. This is because the large business opportunities in china outweigh loss of most jobs from Europe. This has made Europe to have a lot fear because this means an automatic draining of most of the jobs. The rapidly expanding economic growth and its large involvement in global trade have made china to rise in terms of economic power. This has also being contributed by direct investments inflows from foreign countries. Due to this mentality with most of the countries especially the European countries, the European economy has come up with policies which try to react to china’s rise. Europe has a lot fear because it is in the midst of a banking and sovereign debt crisis. The debate in Europe by some policymakers over the European influence to china internationally raised some questions. This is because of the approach used by the European territory to emphasize more on conditionality and encouragement of quality governance. Again, it was because of the approach of the Chinese to put more investment in infrastructure. The Chinese analysts noted that the real source of economic threat was the Europeans. This is because the Europeans were still in fear of the developments found in the Chinese government both economically and in military dimension. Cooney and Sato believed that china was too weak to threaten the western power but according to other policy makers, china is facilitating production of threat series. One of them being a threat to America and Japan, serves as an affirmation to china’s national identity. The Chinese therefore, view the rise of china as result of a pursuit of china’s rejuvenation. This rejuvenation is the psychological power which was embodied in the concept of china’s rise.This is reflected in the strong belief of the Chinese that the rise of china is meant to restore the lost status rather than gaining any new thing. The rise of china therefore as viewed by Chinese is meant to restore fairness instead of taking advantage of other countries. This explains why the Chinese people are not satisfied with the development of their economy which is too weak for china to go back to its position (Cooney and Sato, p. 58).China’s Economic ProspectsChina’s gross domestic product has grown higher than the past years when the country’s economic reform program was officially launched. China has had the fastest long term rate of growth as compared to countries world wide hence this has grown a lot of fear in the neighboring countries like the Asia, Japan, United States and European countries. This has made the country to expand and maintain its growth even in times of global recession. For example in the year 2002, the expansion of Chinese economy was ten times higher than Japan making it to be ranked the third in the world economy. Again, the external trade in china has also expanded more than its economy has expanded. This has reflected its openness. For example in the year 1977 china contributed to 0.6 percent of the overall world trade which ranked it the seven largest in the global economy. China’s trade performance has been very strong for quite some time since 1980s until 2001 when it shrank and began again to recover in 2002. Another factor that causes china’s rise is the inflows of foreign direct investment. It showed China signaled its intention to open its economic sector after emerging the best in a joint venture law which triggered the creation of special economic zones. China’s economy continues to give a surprise to the neighboring countries because even when the global inflows continue to decline to a low level the inflows to china continue to increase at high rate.This has made China’s economy to give a threat to its neighbors. Although this can be a great threat to its neighbors it is fair to say that its improved economic performance is not a clear guarantee of its success (Lardy, p.34).Europeans view on china’s riseThe rise of china leaves most of the countries with a great opportunity which is not limited to its economic coverage area. Some of the countries like the United States have resorted to frequent use of military solutions because of the slow process of diplomacy. The china’s rise is aimed at power restoration and hence stability of the whole area. Some of the manufacturers and the labor unions believe that most of the factory jobs lost in the European countries can as a result of the rapidly rising bilateral trade deficit that the European countries has with Chinese government. The European government continues to wonder what negative consequences the rise of china will impact on them. This means that the Europeans have the fear that china’s economic development will threaten their security. This has made the European consider china as a strategic threat. Some of the economists resolve that Europe should make an agreement on the sale of products to their territories. They should limit sale of any product that is of low standard of living hence increasing job opportunities in their home country and stop Chinese from exploiting cheap currency (Cooney and Sato, p. 19).With its present rate of rising gross domestic product, china would soon go beyond Europe as it has happened with japan. This is because the Chinese government acquires resources from most parts of the world in order tom increase the investments on infrastructure. It is also working on its currency as it targets the European currency which is its strength. Some other scholars have resolved that they don’t see china been a great threat to the European economy because Europe can as well form its own policies from foreign countries and form a good relationship with china. This can work out well and be beneficial if its structures are well galvanized. On the other hand Europeans have the reason to say that it is a threat to global stability more than United States and other countries like Iran. This threat is not only viewed from the economic point of view but also the military point. The Chinese government has growing high tech weaponry which threatens the Europeans. Their main objective in this is to project power at a given time (Lardy, p. 45). Again, china’s adequate labor and the absence of restraints in the environmental and the social sector mean that the country can be a threat even to the rest of the world. These sort of unfair acts are clearing most of the jobs in the entire world. Again, its demand which has remained unsatisfied has raised oil and mineral prices in the entire world. Another threat is the fact that china makes use of its economic power to hook up other countries. Its high investments have secured unhealthy acts across most of the countries in Africa. This has given it the power to make use of other countries’ economic resources and cause exploitation to their efforts. This has further being a great threat to Europe because china has gone to an extent of colonizing European hence grabbing off companies from the Portuguese. They have also taken the Greek ports and taken other opportunities because of the high economic power. In addition, china has hindered the spread of democratic values by the Europeans. On the same note china’s economic progress undermines the European aspirations among many western aspirations making it a role model to be followed by other countries (Shi, p. 213). ConclusionFrom the discussion above it can be concluded that the rise of china has presented threats and opportunities not only for Europe but also in the wider global economy. The fact that it has an expanding trade has made it an engine of growth as Lardy puts it in his book. This is because of the large amounts of capital goods that are imported and equipment used in the industry’s processing units. China has also become an important market for most of the Europeans firms giving European a great challenge. Again, it has been found to be a challenge to most of the countries producing manufactured goods that require a lot of labor. Most of such countries have started to invest directly to china resulting to unemployment in the home countries. On the other hand, Chinese continent is determined to be among the leading in global economic power and this will make restore its international standard. This is likely to be more of a threat than an opportunity to the Europeans. Despite many of the uncertainties brought about by the neighboring countries the Chinese still have a belief that they will realize their great power dream. If the rise of china is taken as the country’s restoration, the china will then reject the threat theory by the Europeans and refer it to as western prejudice. It still appears that the Chinese are still confident of casting themselves as having responsible great power (Hauser, p. 66). This is what helps china to be in a position of addressing other continents’ concerns as pertains its rise. Again, from the European view concerning the rise of china, it is clear that the European will only accept the china’s economic growth and its rise so as to avoid seeing it as a threat to its economy. This will change the European perception and take it as a challenge and an opportunity to assist each other. This is only possible if the two countries form strong economic ties (Schmitt, p.104). Again, the European should see china’s rise playing a very significant role in the world by recovering the economy hence being able to take some of the roles in world affairs. This will contribute to a great advance in science and technology in the entire country which is a great threat to other countries in the world. Although china is causing displacement to production in the European market the challenge is not too great. As it has been discussed that the china’s rise has led to loss of job opportunities, the European economy is adjusting towards this. This therefore leads to a conclusion that the rise of china is both a threat as well an opportunity but the European should take it as an opportunity in order tom advance to reach its standards (Blankert, p. 49).
