It’s too late to stop China’s rise, so the West must start to question its own assumptions

Keith Burnett says the new world order emerging from China’s rise is proof of the folly of Western expectations. Understanding China on its own terms is critical

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A woman peeps out from behind a curtain ahead of a press conference following a plenary session of China’s National People’s Congress, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 19. Most people in Western economies know very little of the purposes behind Chinese politics or the meetings of the legislature. Photo: AP

Published: 3:15pm, 19 Apr 2018Updated: 9:03pm, 19 Apr 2018

Accusations levelled against China that its actions could result in a tit-for-tat trade war with the US do not reflect the China I have come to know in my own work with universities and industries there.

One recent article in The Economist mourned that the West had lost the bet on China. Which bet? That once China became more prosperous, its people would inevitably crave democracy. That progress meant the Chinese would adopt our system and, enlightened, they would wish to become like us, of course.

Only, the writer admitted that this assumption was flawed. The West had hoped China could become a commercial partner along Western lines, and that it would give up all that “communism with Chinese characteristics”. After we had seen the fall of the Berlin Wall, China has caught us out. It seems the West had assumed that when walls fall, the natural consequence would be free-market capitalism.

In the main, we take working toilets and productive employment for granted. For us, China is a new force to be reckoned with and most people in Western economies know very little of the purposes behind Chinese politics or the meetings of the legislature in the Great Hall of the People.

Concerned critics of China say that, in spite of all the work of Western companies in this vast and developing economy, there is no free market, only a playing field tilted in favour of Chinese players. The West has lost the bet that China’s opening up would lead to democratic reform at home and the rule of law driving human rights.