China's Rising Global Influence and Gifts to Western Civilization

China's Rise as a Global Power

China has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent decades. Freed from 150 years of struggle as a command economy, China first became a "rising power" and then achieved the status of an actual "risen power" (Brookes, 2005). Unprecedented economic reforms initiated two decades ago led to remarkable economic growth and expansion. Achieving nearly double-digit growth over the last two decades, China has restored its historical position as the "Middle Kingdom." Chinese analysts believe this immense growth will continue and challenge traditional world powers, including the United States, in terms of dominion and control of international mechanisms.

At present, China possesses significant global influence. It has the largest population in the world, the second-largest defense budget, and ranks as the second-largest economy. These capabilities allow China to play major roles in global politics. It is not only a permanent member of the UN Security Council; it is also a nuclear weapons state. Its political clout is growing beyond Asia as well. China has been playing major roles in international issues such as weapons proliferation, human rights, and energy security. In the coming decades, China envisions attaining its "rightful place" among established great powers in the world system, possibly at the top (Brookes, 2005).

Material Gifts: Inventions and Goods

China was already conducting extensive trade with Europe and other countries when Christopher Columbus discovered the territory that became America (Bodde, 2005). China endowed the West and the rest of the world with material and intellectual gifts that greatly contributed to civilization. Among its material gifts—in the form of goods, inventions, and discoveries—are silk, porcelain, tea, paper, printing, gunpowder, the compass, lacquer, medicines, plants, playing cards, intensive breeding techniques, wallpaper, the folding umbrella, and the sedan chair or palanquin, used as comfortable transportation (Bodde, 2005).

Intellectual Contributions to the West

Beyond material goods, the Chinese contributed ideas that helped shape political and social development in the West (Bodde, 2005). These intellectual contributions include the origins and influence of the civil service system, alchemy and chemistry, agricultural methods, thought in the Age of Enlightenment, Western literature, and Western political and economic theories. Each of these areas represents a significant channel through which Chinese civilization influenced the development of Western thought and institutions.

Civil Service, Literature, and Early Sciences

The civil service system is now one of the established institutions in modern democracies (Bodde, 2005). It did not originate in America or Europe. Rather, it was adopted from an earlier source through the systems of Britain and France. China inaugurated the first merit-based system of competitive government examinations in 165 BCE (Bodde, 2005). This innovation established the principle that government positions should be filled based on demonstrated competence rather than hereditary privilege or patronage.

A Chinese tale written in the 9th century appears to be the oldest known version of the famous story of Cinderella (Bodde, 2005). The next version appeared 700 years later in 1544 in Lyon, France. The original was written by a Chinese scholar named Tua Ch'eng-shih, who gathered and published strange and supernatural stories. One of them came from a region in South China. That original dealt with the same lessons on human virtues that were later adapted in the Western world (Bodde, 2005).

The Chinese initiated alchemy, the ancient art that later evolved into modern chemistry (Bodde, 2005). They pioneered experiments to convert base metals into precious ores. Their theories attracted the attention of scholars in the 18th century. While it is commonly believed that alchemy evolved from Alexandria in the early centuries after Christ, records indicate that Chinese alchemy dates back more than two centuries before those practices in Alexandria in 133 BCE. Chinese alchemy is rooted in the theory that the fundamental law of the universe is constant change (Bodde, 2005).

Political and Economic Thought

European scholars who lived in China during the 17th century wrote detailed observations on Chinese civilization (Bodde, 2005). China had developed quite independently at that time, emphasizing people as a greater resource than the sovereign. This idea fueled the evolution of the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century in France, which emphasized the role of reason and common sense as a scientific method of thinking (Bodde, 2005).

China has always been predominantly agrarian, with only minimal industries and trade (Bodde, 2005). The Chinese consistently upheld agriculture as a primary industry deserving intensive government support. They traditionally regarded commerce as secondary and non-productive, esteeming the farmer far higher than the merchant in social ranking. These values influenced the Physiocrats, whose ideas later influenced the theories of Adam Smith, who wrote The Wealth of Nations in 1776. The Physiocrats, in turn, founded modern Western political economy. Their insistence on the need for universal education led to a 19th-century movement that became standard practice in Western democracies (Bodde, 2005).