Home Search Sitemap Contact Bookmark

Free Dissertations - International Relations Dissertations

Both The Us And China Have Some Common Economic Interests. Both Benefit From ...


Both the US and China have some common economic interests. Both benefit from free trade for example. However, with China now exporting six times as much to the US as it imports from it (The Economist, September 3, 2005)., it is now China that has the most to gain, something of an irony after years of America hammering on its door to access Chinese markets. There have also been concerns in the US that China is trying to but its way into strategic assets within the US. In June 2005, CNOOC, a Chinese state controlled company attempted to buy Unocal, a medium sized US oil company. Hawks within the US administration argued against allowing oil firms to fall into Chinese hands and, with public opinion in the US against the deal, it eventually fell through.
The Chinese view on globalisation has been mixed. There is a view that globalisation gives a stronger reason for economic cooperation between economically strong states and certainly the acceptance of global brands into Chinese culture supports the argument that it has embraced globalisation. On the other hand, globalisation tends to reinforce US and Western interests first and foremost and the 1997-99 Asian financial crisis has convinced many within China that it could expose Chinese economic vulnerability. As Foot concludes: with America's advantage in technological innovation, revolution in military affairs and cultural domination, globalisation seemed to confer gains on Washington and thus further to reinforce the unipolar structure (Foot 2006 p82).


Military Power
To assess China's rise to Superpower status we need to look at how it ranks in regard to military strength and capability. (Waltz 1979 p. 131). The Neo-Realist view is that the nation-state is the most natural form of society and it should be defended for the national good. (Kennedy p. 90). Armies are essential for controlling land and bringing security to the nation state and which is the main objective in a world of states in a system of anarchy. (Mearsheimer p. 86).Due to competition for resources in a world of anarchy military power is a crucial instrument of the national interest. (Garnett, 1987 p. 71). Thus military power is monopolised by states and used to protect states from external force. It is the capacity to kill, coerce or destroy and plays a significant part in international politics that will not be supplanted until the system of states is transformed. (Garnett 1987, p. 69-71). Those who have the most military strength are usually the most influential and the most respected in the system and certainly a proposition shared by Mao Tse-Tung's saying that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. (Garnett 1987, p. 74).
Recent analyses of the Chinese military threat from Washington have expressed growing concern.


Thanks