“The global environment was crucial to China’s emergence,” University of Virginia professor emeritus of foreign affairs Brantly Womack tells Kathimerini, a few hours after the conclusion of the workshop “Recentering Pacific Asia: Regional China and World Order,” organized by the Institute of International Relations (IDIS) in Athens. China’s rise in the global geopolitical arena and its influence in the Western world have turned a portion of experts to study the Chinese model of development. According to Dr Womack, “Peace enabled China to concentrate on development, while containerization and global value chains encouraged trade and investment.”
Regarding China’s transition to the augmented production model, Womack sees the evolution of ideology as crucial to its growth, pointing out that analysts overlook “domestic” factors. “Mao’s leftism had stalled China’s growth,” he notes, “but it created a docile, organized workforce that had basic health and education and expected to work hard in order to survive, while Deng Xiaoping’s pragmatism (i.e. the architect of modern China) encouraged any innovation that succeeded. China has swung now to excessive centralization, and that has slowed its growth rate, but it has already risen to a global leader.”
In a recent work, Womack introduced the term “asymmetric parity,” analyzing US-China relations as “communicating vessels” rather than a hegemonic confrontation. “Their strengths arise from different sources,” he explains to Kathimerini. “China’s foundation is first its economic centrality to Pacific Asia and then its reach beyond; American strength lies in its multidimensional global centrality,” he concludes. “China does not steal its growth from the United States but has benefited from the global order; similarly, China’s growth has strengthened the global political economy.”
Asked about China’s growing influence in Europe and trade competition, Womack responds, “If Pacific Asia remains a cohesive economic region, its increasing advantages of scale production will continue to delight European consumers and worry European producers,” adding, “China has been very smart to turn the vector of its growth toward green energy, and Europe also has much to contribute here. Europe has an advantage over the United States in that it is not burdened with hegemonic nostalgia, and the impulse to make itself great again. But in the long term, I think that the world needs to ease back on its drive of creative destruction and prioritize sustainability over progress. And sustainability is not simply progressing in a different direction. It begins at home, with protecting people’s welfare as well as the environment.”
Regarding Greece and its strengthened relations with China, Professor Womack describes the port of Piraeus as “the most successful example of collaboration between Europe and China, and Greece of course benefits from it,” and underlines that “shipping and tourism in Greece align its interests with those of China, while Greece has the additional advantage of not depending on Eurasian land connectivity.”
In conclusion, the distinguished academic acknowledges Athens’ upgraded geostrategic position in the field of energy, noting that “Athens is in a happier situation than Duisburg (Germany), the terminus of the China-Europe rail line. And Greece is not as enmeshed in US concerns as the UK. Also, one of the great strengths of Europe, and of the EU in particular, is its diversity. China values the regional discursive democracy of the EU members, and Greece is in a position to continue to make a positive and nuanced contribution to Europe’s relations with China.”
