Panda Diplomacy

Most important of all for China is the growth of its knowledge over the course of the last few decades. China now exceeds the United States in the number of scientific and scholarly publications produced on an annual basis. China also exceeds the United States in terms of space exploration and space technology at the moment. As Rumi famously said, if you want to know how the world works, observe the Chinese. Moreover, the global political and global social situation – while precarious for countries and economies like America and Europe – actually renders opportunities for China over the long run because of its pragmatic and non-ideological approach towards the world. 

China’s approach towards other countries is essentially non-hegemonic, in the sense that China does not seek to impose its beliefs and culture on other people, whereas the United States has demonstrated a history of such behavior due to a sense of racial superiority. This hegemonic and toxic stance of the United States towards other countries makes other countries – especially those in the Middle East – very uncomfortable, but the sense of discomfort cannot be openly expressed because of political correctness. China’s approach towards the Israeli-Arab conflict, for instance, is less biased and much fairer and more reasonable than the approach of the United States, and this Chinese approach can then play into China’s inroads into places like Saudi Arabia and Qatar over the long run. As Mao famously said: “Everything under heaven is in utter chaos; the situation is excellent.” 

China’s backbone for productivity and growth at the moment is manufacturing. China evolved from an agricultural economy into a manufacturing economy over the course of the last few decades. Now, China is making the jump towards services and technology. China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ – which has the consent and support of virtually all the world’s nations except for the United States and Japan – serves as the basic infrastructure for mutually beneficial relations between itself and many of the other countries situated on the Eurasian landmass. 

As far as its inroads into the Middle East is concerned, China is enabled over the long run by three things which emanate out of the West’s approach and outlook towards the Middle East, namely, the history of America’s aggressive politics and violence in that region of the world, the Western talk of climate change and cutting down its dependence and reliance on Middle Eastern energy, and the Israeli-Arab conflict. All three of these Western dimensions or elements of Western relations with the Middle East will perhaps render the Middle East as much more receptive towards China’s “Dollar Diplomacy” and “Panda Diplomacy” over the long run. 

As mentioned before, Chinese ‘grand strategy’ is dictated in large part by ‘Wei Qi.’ What ‘Wei Qi’ dictates is a strategy of defensive and strategic evasion and patience in the face of American “maximum pressure” and warmongering. Washington is perhaps under the impression that “maximum pressure” and warmongering will derail Chinese ‘grand strategy.’ But there is no indication at this moment that this Chinese ‘grand strategy’ can be derailed by ‘maximum pressure’ and warmongering. And in the broadest and most elevated sense, while Washington’s approach stems from a false sense of racial superiority, Beijing’s approach emanates from a very real sense of cultural superiority which everyone overlooks as a result of delusion and illusion.