China's Foreign Political and Economic Relations
Introduction
The book is authored by Sebastian Heilmann and Dirk Schmidst and provides an accurate analysis on economic relations and foreign political relations of China. The book comprises of twelve chapters with each chapter explaining more about China and its economic as well as political relations. The authors therefore consider the view of the world according to china, decision making process of china, its bilateral relations, major political issues example trade, climate change, human rights and security. The authors note that Chinese foreign issues are more intense than how the media discusses them. China has become an important player in a variety of issues including trade and security policies, climate change policies and monetary policy. China has influenced countries such as Latin America and Africa economically thus improving international relations since it is one of the developed countries. China has continued to make economic ties with the developing countries since it is one of the developed countries that have great influences on the global economy. China contributed much in ensuring that the world’s economy remains boosted especially after 2009 where the world’s economy was facing challenges. China is widely known to have long term social and economic advancements thus ensuring its economy is stable and healthy.
The authors suggest that the economy of China is rising thus there is a need to understand China and the reasons leading to the rise of its economy. Chapter one basically gives a wider background on the topic and discusses China and its historical background (Heilmann & Dirk, 12). In this chapter the authors ensure the readers understand China as a country and its relations both political and economic in the past years and why the subject is important. Here the authors tell readers the importance of the book and why people should understand China and its economic status since it is one of the developed countries that the global economy depend on. The authors discovered that the public does not understand China and its economic status and thus this chapter provides details on the subject and importance of the subject. Chapter 2 discusses the foreign factors affecting the Chinese policies within and outside the Chinese foreign relations. This chapter explains China’s economy describing the security of the economy since it had slowed down in 2014 and researchers further foresee more declines in the economy (Heilmann & Dirk, 42). However the economy of China is seen to have overtaken that of the US which was seen as the largest economy in terms of purchasing power. The economic growth of China has risen in the past few decades since the opening of the Chinese market during the 1970s. China has integrated in the global economy and this has helped many countries who have benefited as a result of this integration. At the end of the chapter the authors show that China is beneficiary to the world economy and impacts on the economy positively as one of the developed countries currently.
Chapter 3 further examines the relationship between China and other countries such as Latin America, Africa and other countries and shows the participation of China in the chosen few intergovernmental corporations (Heilmann & Dirk, 54). The chapter also defines foreign aid that China gives to other countries such as developing countries and the soft power as well. This chapter shows that China have good relations with other countries regardless of whether they are developed or developing and integrates well with them in order to ensure the global economy is not at risk. China is therefore one of the most developed countries globally and thus able to enable to boost the developing countries so that they can develop in a faster manner. Chapter 4 mostly focuses on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) which acts as a foreign policy actor and outlines all the functions of this PLA. The chapter discusses the doctrines of PLA in terms of military polices and gives the organization culture of PLA so that people can learn and understand its purpose (Heilmann & Dirk, 76). This chapter in addition discusses all the possible threats PLA might pose to the outside world since the army have military policies which are different from other policies. The chapter analyzes and evaluates PLA thereby showing whether it affects the economy in a negative or positive manner since it is a foreign policy actor. Chapter 5 describes China and its relation to the outside world. The chapter describes the currency policy of Beijing discussing the direct investments made in Beijing and how they have an effect on the Chinese economy. This chapter clearly shows the role of China on the international economy since China plays a big role in stabilizing the world’s economy. This chapter describes into details the Chinese economy outlining the possibilities of the economy having an effect on the global economy with Beijing as the most influential city.
Chapter 6 and 7 describe the role of China in the global environmental organization since China plays a big role in the environmental pollution (Heilmann & Dirk, 102). The two chapters discuss China’s role in environmental matters and how they relate to the world human rights. The chapters describe the role of China in the world’s economy and benefits of China to the economy of the world. The security policy of china is discussed into details in these chapters since the security policy has an influence on the status of the economy. Chapter 8 deeply describes the issue of Taiwan. This describes the relations between the US and Chinese government especially the Taiwan where they made economic ties (Heilmann & Dirk, 130). The china government argued out that Taiwan is a part of china and thus should be part of china as opposed to the people of Taiwan who believed it was a country on its own. Thus the people republic of china was against the Chinese government making ties with both Taiwan and China arguing out that it would have made ties with two governments of China which is not possible. PRC wanted to ensure that Taiwan and the mainland united for them to form one China therefore making ties with the US. The US was concerned with the issue of Taiwan though China believed it was an internal problem that did not affect other countries and later Taiwan was abandoned and reunited with China which ensured the Americans did not remain pleased.
Chapters 9 to 12 mostly analyze relationship of China with countries such as Japan, Korea, Europe and the US. These chapters describe the unconventional nature of the China as an international power. Therefore these chapters relate China with other international countries analyzing the economic achievements of China with other global powers in terms of economic status. China has not been left behind since it is one of the most developed countries internationally and has a great effect on the global economy. China is an influential country economically and its foreign policies affecting other countries as well. The main aim of China is ensuring it leads to promotion of growth and development not only in the country but the whole world as well since it is one of the emerging powers. China clearly outlines that it does not recognize Taiwan as a republic on its own and therefore does not support countries that make ties with Taiwan. The ministry of foreign affairs as the chapters describe carries out China’s foreign polices and ensures the right decisions are made. The book closes with discussions on the exceptional nature of China as one of the emerging global superpower.
Conclusion
From the above discussion one can clearly conclude that China is a global power and has risen over the past decades to become a superpower that the world now depends on. China is useful since it makes ties with other countries so as to ensure it promotes development in terms of the global economic status. China has influenced countries such as Latin America and Africa economically thus improving international relations since it is one of the developed countries that is beneficial to the world. The 12 chapter discuss the economy of China in details and ensure that readers are able to understand the country and the progress it has made as one of the global powers. The country makes economic ties with other countries which have been useful in ensuring the global economy is stable.
Work cited
Heilmann, Sebastian, and Dirk Schmidt. China's Foreign Political and Economic Relations: An Unconventional Global Power. , 2014. Print.
