London: Zed Books Ltd; The University of Chicago Press [distributor], 2017. xii, 292 pp. (Maps.) US$24.95, paper. ISBN 978-1-78360-923-9.
China’s Asian Dream is an ambitious trade professional publication that tries to capture the essence of China’s ambitions, as expressed in the state slogan “China Dream.” The slogan was originally intended for a domestic Chinese audience to aspire towards a better life, but the author casts the concept wider to include China’s economic and political ambitions in the Asian arena, thus the title “China’s Asian Dream.” The publication is written in accessible language and persuasively argued, with evidence drawn from secondary sources and the author’s own observations.
The analytical and interpretive portions of the publication detail the story of the rise of China and its nationalistic impulse to regain its self-perceived rightful place in the world (11), reflected in President Xi Jinping’s economic diplomacy in the “One Belt One Road” (OBOR) initiative. In doing so, the author argues China is creating a Sinocentric world order with some local nationalists showing nostalgia for a Ming-era tributary system (17). The author suggests there is a loosening of self-restraints on a more assertive Chinese foreign policy and international profile, away from “peaceful development,” “bide and hide,” and “harmonious world,” to “the nation’s resurgence as a great power to achieve the ‘Chinese Dream’ of national rejuvenation” (27–28).
Paralleling robust diplomacy, the author also describes the economic implications of the rise of China with the emergence of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and other financial institutions and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) underpinning the OBOR. Viewed in different ways by various parties, the author indicates that these institutions were even regarded as a challenge to the post-1945 Bretton Woods international system by some critics in Washington (37). However, the author argues that Chinese financing competition with regional rivals like Japan has benefitted Asia (45) as the two outbid each other for regional influence.
Throughout the publication, the author is careful to point out the presence of other regional powers and their possible unease with Chinese economic outreach. He addresses the persistent presence of Soviet/Russian influence on Central Asia, in language use, security arrangements, local culture, and military protection (89). In this sense, the author also exposes the underbelly of Chinese power, which is the lack of cultural soft power to influence others through non-military, non-political, and non-economic means (90). Following this line of argument, Asian governments are keen to exploit China’s tremendous economic power but Chinese culture is not universally well-loved and in many ways, it is contained by countries hosting Chinese investments.
The subsequent chapters address specific regions. Chapter 2 focuses on Central Asia and the volume switches gears from a macro-political economic analysis to observation studies of Chinese economic inroads, with short commentaries offered by petty traders on the ground. The author includes accounts of the doubts, suspicions, and even fears held by ordinary Central Asians fearful of being overwhelmed in economic competition by the re-rise of a hegemonic power in their neighbourhood (81). In chapter 3, the author hints at the potential leakage of national wealth if minerals are shipped out of countries like Laos when the Chinese railway lines are completed (104–105). In the same region, Cambodia is described in the book as a state that was spurned by the West based on human rights, driving the country deeper into a Chinese economic embrace (117–119). The author argues that Beijing has reaped geopolitical rewards when Cambodia supported China in issues like Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, and the South China Sea (SCS) (121).
The limits of Chinese diplomacy in the region are evident in the democratization of Myanmar, with the author casting it as “how China lost Myanmar” (chapter 4). The pro-democracy orientation of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government is a test of how China has to deal with constantly evolving national interests with every change of government in Asian countries (159). Chapter 4 also includes a depiction of Beijing’s troubled relationship with New Delhi over a Chinese submarine docking at a Sri Lankan port (India’s sphere of influence) in 2014 (163) and memories of the 1962 Sino-Indian war (165), which created a trust deficit. Miller’s narrative depicts a powerful and confident China eager to establish its sphere of influence in the world but troubled by a relationship of distrust with its neighbours. Miller is careful to highlight potential beneficiaries, partners, allies, neutral intermediaries as well as rivals and enemies in interacting with China’s economic outreach.
Some factors are understandably de-privileged in the publication due to a very practical central focus on Chinese economic outreach. China’s millennia-old paranoia with internal control and order is based on the avoidance of dynastic implosions experienced cyclically throughout Chinese history. China’s ability to manage equitable distribution of resources while tackling systemic excesses and corruption will impact its political stability, which in turn is crucial to sustaining its external economic and geopolitical outreach. Therefore, for a more objective picture, Miller’s publication needs to be contextualized or paired off with another volume dedicated to studying China’s tremendous domestic challenges.
To dramatize the idea of the rise of China, the publication begins with a fictional future scenario detailing the apocalyptic collapse of Europe, a hostile US, and China as a global superpower (1). But the situation could take a different turn in alternative scenarios of major power responses to China’s assertion of its own interests. For example, will an abrupt shift from a policy of “biding time” for China’s rise to proactive (sometimes aggressive), far-reaching, and continental-wide diplomacy consolidate the otherwise disparate national interests of other major powers against Chinese geopolitical moves? If India, Japan, the US, and the EU find common ground for coordinating a response to China’s assertion of interests, the future scenario could be quite different from the hypothetical one painted by the author at the beginning of the volume.
Tai Wei Lim
National University of Singapore, Singapore
pp. 147-149