Daily Times

When life throws lemon, make it lemonade or the more you sweat in peace the less you bleed in war. Crisis brings opportunities with itself conditional to the capacity of the dealer. The Chinese world is the outcome of the multilayered presence of Beijing in different fields of life be that of political, economic or mediation between the warring parties. The growing influence of China in the sphere of technology adds another feather to the cap of its honour.

China under Xi is enjoying a long distanced presence in economic and trade areas across the continental world. Above all, the recent version of the Chinese world has unveiled itself in the shape of a mediator and somewhere as a facilitator which has turned into its diplomatic heavyweight. The two long-standing rivals which had put the Middle Eastern region on hot bad of geopolitical wrestling have been brought closer to each other as a result of the deal brokered between them with the help of Beijing a couple of weeks ago. This has enhanced the credibility of the Chinese world.

It might be mentioned here that the said world is not exempted from challenges. The most dangerous among all is the opposition by the West. Though the global power rivalry has badly influenced the geopolitical chessboard and affected many countries’ ways of action, one must be in a responsible position when one approaches it. Thus, a country like Pakistan must behave at per with their national interests. Thus, it might be challenging for Pakistan to draft and devise an approach to exploit the Chinese world. But it must adopt a mature step toward it in accordance with the demand of time.

The growing influence of China in the sphere of technology adds another feather to the cap of its honour.

The reformist China stamped on the progress of China which had pervaded each way of life. This raised the status of China in the rank of the global powers. Gradually, Beijing kept exerting its undeniable influence on various aspects of life. The most notable thing is that China has learned from its past under Mao and vehemently followed the China of Deng. The latter introduced liberalism with Chinese traits, to China to unleash its progress which later on proved valid. Such a controlled model kept working during the later periods.

The Xi world has revolutionized this approach. It has provided China with a mounting influence of growing economic presence which triggers its liability for others, diplomatic heavyweight granting external credibility to Beijing, regional and global integration and provision of soft power among others.

One of the prominent features of the Chinese world is its phenomenal economic strength. The projects like BRI are serving on multiple fronts among which the reconstruction of physical and energy infrastructure stands prominent. The said projects offer development in the areas of physical infrastructure, energy production, employment opportunities and economic growth. For instance, its flagship CPEC aims so. The BRI project is linking almost four continents which in turn contributes to local development as well as the regional and inter and intra-continental linkage. All this is enhancing the Chinese world’s reliability and credibility. The said project also consists of spreading rail tracks and optic fibre thereby updating the traditional-cum-new means of communication.

The Chinese economic world stretches on a durable bilateral and multilateral partnership layer. One can hardly ignore the role of Beijing in the development of economic opportunities in a plethora of countries across the globe. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank serves as an alternative to the West-led IMF. Above all, the bilateral trade agreements like the China-Iran deal and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor among others and multilateral trade partnerships in the form of BRI projects, the Asian Infrastructure Bank among others bring about a win-win situation for China.

Similarly, the diplomatic heavyweight of China has been of phenomenal importance over the past more than a decade. The role of Beijing to bring the warring parties to the dialogue table and eventually brokering a deal for installing peace and normalizing bilateral ties can hardly be ignored. This role has currently flourished by brokering the deal between the arch-rivals KSA and Iran whose rivalry has been the key reason for the boiling Middle Eastern region, e.g., the Syrian and Yemen crises. The Chinese reiterated their wish for a peaceful political settlement to the Russia-Ukraine standoff holds some water. Next to this list of facilitation and mediation might be the effort to bring the long-standing rivals India and Pakistan to the dialogue table thereby giving an end to their long-standing rivalry. However the latter might be challenging while keeping the Sino-India rivalry in view.

The Chinese way is also heading towards regional and global integration. The China-Iran-Russia troika centring around anti-West and even anti-US narrative is expanding its sphere even to the Middle East crevassing the gulf to bring in its orbit one of the key powers in GCC and even in the Muslim World-Saudi Arabia. The growing influence of SCO is roaring and many a country is aspiring to join it. The long list of awaited countries to join the BRICS is also unveiling the fact that the Chinese effort at an external level to trigger regional and global integration holds some phenomenal significance which may also contribute to promoting amiable relations between the member states.

It would be unjust if the modernity in the Chinese world is not harped on. China is sharing the space with other stakeholders of the tech world order. Beijing is performing exceptionally well in the fields of Information Technology and Artificial intelligence thereby enhancing the credibility of China. Likewise, this might be a celebrated urge for many, mostly for the gurus of Western liberal political order to criticize the Chinese version of democracy and the political system overall. But it has also been lauded by many. Many a sceptic defines the Chinese political model as a controlled Western liberal democracy. The said system is an amalgamation of Western and Chinese traits of the political system. Despite the popular criticism over the controlled model, the Chinese politico-economic regime is succeeding in cracking its ways to many political set-ups. Though much similar, the Arab political world is largely being brought under the magic spell of the Chinese system. The critics term this to be the outcome of the apparent successful nature of the Chinese model. Thus, this is also contributing to enlarging the sphere of the Chinese way.

Wrapping up the peripheries of the Chinese World, the fact is unveiled that when time is properly exploited, it turns upside down and pays back. For instance, there was a zenith in the prevailing Western order at the end of the Soviet Union, but the dawn of the Chinese world disrupted the unchallenged existence of the Western politico-economic regime. This also uncovers another fact that a thing with a possible and positive outcome is more attractive than one which is just exaggerated to be so. China is influencing the world by its practical results. This is the reason due to which countries are rushing towards it without daring to question its credibility, reliability and moral nature. Thus, action speaks louder than words.

The writer has done his Master of Arts in English Literature and Linguistics from NUML Islamabad and can be reached at abdulsamadkhanbannu22@gmail.com.