DOCSLIB.ORG

China Sets Sail Andrew Erickson, Lyle Goldstein & Carnes Lord

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
China Sets Sail Andrew Erickson, Lyle Goldstein & Carnes Lord THE NEW ASIAN ORDER China has been undergoing an historic shift in emphasis from land to naval power. Is its maritime buildup a strategic necessity or an ill-conceived diversion? China Sets Sail Andrew Erickson, Lyle Goldstein & Carnes Lord he People’s Republic of China is in With but one notable exception, China’s the process of an astonishing, multi- rulers throughout history have traditionally em- T faceted transformation. If the explosive phasized land power over sea power. Of course, growth of China’s industrial economy over the ordinary Chinese living on the country’s exten- past several decades is the most obvious com- sive coastline have always taken to the sea for ponent of that transformation, no less remark- their livelihood, but the economy of China has able is China’s turn to the sea. With its stun- always been fundamentally rooted in its soil. To ning advance in global shipbuilding markets, the extent that the Chinese engaged in com- its vast and expanding merchant marine, the mercial activities over the centuries, they did so wide reach of its offshore energy and minerals primarily with a view to their large and largely exploration, its growing fishing fleet, and not self-sufficient internal market, readily accessible least, its rapidly modernizing navy, China is through China’s great navigable river systems fast becoming an outward-looking maritime as well as its many seaward ports. Moreover, state. At a time when the U.S. Navy continues prior to 1840, the Chinese faced virtually no to shrink in numbers if not relative capability, sustained security threats on their ocean flank. while the traditional naval powers of Europe Historically, the security threat that preoccupied are in sharp decline, this is a development that China’s leaders was exposure to raiding or inva- deserves careful consideration by students of sion by the steppe nomads of Inner Asia. This contemporary global affairs. threat was always latent and sometimes lethal: More than one Chinese dynasty succumbed to Andrew Erickson is an associate professor and the horsemen of the north. The strategic culture a founding member of the Naval War College’s formed by this history and political geography (NWC) China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI). was therefore a profoundly continentalist one. Lyle Goldstein is an associate professor at NWC Throughout most of the past two centuries, and the founding director of CMSI. Carnes Lord this strategic culture retained its power. In the is professor of Naval and Military Strategy at NWC 19th century, Qing China proved incapable of and editor of the Naval War College Review. This meeting the maritime challenge posed by the article draws on their edited volume China Goes to Western powers, even as it conquered vast new Sea (Naval Institute Press, 2009). territories on its inner Asian periphery. In the SUMMER (MAY /JUNE ) 2010 27 THE NEW ASIAN ORDER First Opium War (1839–42), a British fleet of the Western powers and further humiliation penetrating to the heart of China’s riverine for the regime. In 1905, China suffered pas- network threatened to shut down China’s in- sively as the Russo-Japanese War was waged ternal commerce, forcing the regime to sue for on its territory and in its territorial waters. All peace; it was at this time that Britain acquired of these developments helped to fatally weaken Hong Kong. In the 1880s, defeat of a Chinese the foundations of the dynasty and, indeed, fleet at the hands of the French sealed the end the legitimacy of the empire itself. of China’s traditional influence in Indochina. The fall of the Qing in 1911 led to a long pe- By the last decade of the century, despite their riod of internal instability. Local warlords con- acquisition of significant naval capabilities, tended with the Kuomintang movement under the Chinese proved no match for their rapidly Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek), the Commu- modernizing island neighbor. Humiliating de- nists under Mao Zedong, and the Japanese feat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 led army in a complex struggle for control of the to a Japanese protectorate in Korea and the loss territories bequeathed by imperial China. The of Taiwan. eventual Communist victory in 1949 restored Pressed by the Russians from the north as China to unity—except for Taiwan and some well as by Japan and the Western maritime smaller offshore islands held by the retreating powers, the imperial court was forced into Kuomintang. This legacy of China’s Civil War commercial and territorial concessions. Popu- fundamentally changed the political and stra- lar resistance to these developments culminat- tegic geography of China and the thinking of ed in 1900 in the Boxer Rebellion, a series of China’s Communist elites concerning national spontaneous acts of violence against Western security: No longer could China all but ignore interests that the court tried to use to its po- its seaward frontier. It is only recently, however, litical advantage. The result was a lengthy oc- that these changes have had a transformative cupation of the imperial capital itself by forces effect on Chinese security behavior. © Philadelphia Museum of Art/CORBIS Japan Defeats the Chinese Fleet Near Phungtau (1894), by Kobayashi Kiyochika 28 THE AMERICAN IN T ERE st CHINA SETS SAIL The reason for the delay turns on several naval and maritime activities as well. The events that reinforced the inherent land-war- Southern Song Dynasty (1127–1279) had a fare orientation of Communist China’s mili- seaport on the lower Yangzi River as its capital tary elites. These events include the disinte- (Hangzhou), a city greatly admired by Marco gration of the alliance between China and the Polo when he visited it. Its large shipyards sup- Soviet Union in the 1950s, which resulted in a ported a significant naval force. When the renewed threat to China’s Inner Asian frontier. Mongols overthrew the Song, their Yuan Dy- Also influential was the poor showing of the nasty (1271–1368) inherited these naval assets People’s Liberation Army in its brief war with and accompanying nautical skills, enabling it Vietnam in 1979, which focused the attention to launch major (albeit unsuccessful) amphibi- of the PRC leadership on modernization of the ous expeditions against Japan, Vietnam and Chinese army at the expense of the navy. Java—thought to be the largest such operations With the end of the Cold War and the col- in all of the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, lapse of the Soviet Union, China no longer the Chinese made significant advances in ship- faced an existential threat on its inner Asian building technology and naval armaments, as frontier. Its primary security concerns were well as in astronomy and cartography. The Chi- clearly shifting to the maritime domain. In nese are, indeed, credited with having invented the first instance, territorial disputes in off- the magnetic compass. shore waters with various regional states as- Moreover, the Ming Dynasty first estab- sumed greater salience, beginning with the lished itself by defeating its rivals in southern PRC’s clash with Vietnam over the Paracel China largely through the use of naval power. Islands in the South China Sea in 1974. Sec- The decisive battle of Lake Poyang (1363) in- ond, the evolution of Taiwan’s domestic poli- volved hundreds of warships on both sides, tics in a democratic direction was threatening larger than all but a few sea battles in earlier or to move the Republic of China away from its for that matter later times. Riverine operations long-standing “One China” policy toward de like this, too often slighted in conventional na- facto and even de jure independence. At the val histories, are of central importance to the same time, the apparent willingness of the maritime history of China. United States to act as Taiwan’s protector— The great exception to the continentalist despite its normalization of relations with the narrative is of course the series of voyages under- PRC in the 1970s and the quasi-alliance of taken by the eunuch admiral Zheng He in the the two countries in the 1980s—forced the early 15th century (1405–33). Under the patron- Chinese to contemplate the prospect of even- age of the Ming Emperor Yongle, Zheng He un- tually engaging the U.S. Navy in East Asian dertook an ambitious program of ship construc- waters. Finally, the rapid growth of the Chi- tion and maritime infrastructure development. nese economy made comprehensive modern- Zheng commanded seven major expeditions, ization of China’s naval forces at long last a typically consisting of hundreds of ships and tens feasible objective of Chinese Communist of thousands of men, which showed the Ming military policy. flag in the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and even East Africa. The fleet included warships mounting cannon as well as The Long View “treasure ships”, of which the largest may have been 440 feet in length and displaced more than ooking at China’s current maritime trans- 20,000 tons; vessels on this scale dwarfed any- L formation in a longer historical perspective, thing known in the West at that time. These though, it is possible to overstate the extent to vast and no doubt expensive enterprises do not which Chinese strategic culture over the centu- seem to have brought commensurate benefit to ries has been strictly continentalist. the empire, however, and the impetus behind Conventional historiography has exagger- them flagged not long after Emperor Yongle’s ated Ming neglect of the maritime domain, death. The mandarins of the imperial bureau- and ignored earlier but lesser known Chinese cracy seem to have opposed them as risky and SUMMER (MAY /JUNE ) 2010 29 THE NEW ASIAN ORDER wasteful; in the century following, imperial population and significant commerce from ear- edicts discouraged long-distance maritime com- ly times, it is surprising that the French did not merce, and Zheng He’s navy fell into disrepair.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Military Dimensions of U.S. – China Security Cooperation: Retrospective and Future Prospects
    The Military Dimensions of U.S. – China Security Cooperation: Retrospective and Future Prospects Dr. David Finkelstein CIM D0023640.A1/Final September 2010 CNA is a non-profit research and analysis organization comprised of the Center for Naval Analyses (a federally funded research and development center) and the Institute for Public Research. The CNA China Studies division provides its sponsors, and the public, analyses of China’s emerging role in the international order, China’s impact in the Asia-Pacific region, important issues in US-China relations, and insights into critical developments within China itself. Whether focused on Chinese defense and security issues, Beijing’s foreign policies, bilateral relations, political developments, economic affairs, or social change, our analysts adhere to the same spirit of non-partisanship, objectivity, and empiricism that is the hallmark of CNA research. Our program is built upon a foundation of analytic products and hosted events. Our publications take many forms: research monographs, short papers, and briefings as well as edited book-length studies. Our events include major conferences, guest speakers, seminars, and workshops. All of our products and programs are aimed at providing the insights and context necessary for developing sound plans and policies and for making informed judgments about China. CNA China Studies enjoys relationships with a wide network of subject matter experts from universities, from government, and from the private sector both in the United States and overseas. We particularly value our extensive relationships with counterpart organizations throughout “Greater China”, other points across Asia, and beyond. Dr. David M. Finkelstein, Vice President and Director of CNA China Studies, is available at (703) 824-2952 and on e-mail at [email protected].
    [Show full text]
  • Surface Modelling of Human Population Distribution in China
    Ecological Modelling 181 (2005) 461–478 Surface modelling of human population distribution in China Tian Xiang Yuea,∗, Ying An Wanga, Ji Yuan Liua, Shu Peng Chena, Dong Sheng Qiua, Xiang Zheng Denga, Ming Liang Liua, Yong Zhong Tiana, Bian Ping Sub a Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 917 Building, Datun, Anwai, Beijing 100101, China b College of Science, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi’an 710055, China Received 24 March 2003; received in revised form 23 April 2004; accepted 4 June 2004 Abstract On the basis of introducing major data layers corresponding to net primary productivity (NPP), elevation, city distribution and transport infrastructure distribution of China, surface modelling of population distribution (SMPD) is conducted by means of grid generation method. A search radius of 200 km is defined in the process of generating each grid cell. SMPD not only pays attention to the situation of relative elements at the site of generating grid cell itself but also calculates contributions of other grid cells by searching the surrounding environment of the generating grid cell. Human population distribution trend since 1930 in China is analysed. The results show that human population distribution in China has a slanting trend from the eastern region to the western and middle regions of China during the period from 1930 to 2000. Two scenarios in 2015 are developed under two kinds of assumptions. Both scenarios show that the trends of population floating from the western and middle regions to the eastern region of China are very outstanding with urbanization and transport development.
    [Show full text]
  • Spatiotemporal Evolution of China's Railway Network in the 20Th Century
    Transportation Research Part A 43 (2009) 765–778 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Transportation Research Part A journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tra Spatiotemporal evolution of China’s railway network in the 20th century: An accessibility approach Jiaoe Wang a,b,*, Fengjun Jin a, Huihui Mo a,c, Fahui Wang c a Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China b Department of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA c China Communications and Transportation Association, Beijing 100825, China article info abstract Article history: The interrelatedness of transportation development and economic growth has been a con- Received 27 April 2007 stant theme of geographic inquiries, particularly in economic and transportation geogra- Received in revised form 17 June 2009 phy. This paper analyzes the expansion of China’s railway network, the evolution of its Accepted 12 July 2009 spatial accessibility, and the impacts on economic growth and urban systems over a time span of about one century (1906–2000). First, major historical events and policies and their effects on railway development in China are reviewed and grouped into four major eras: Keywords: preliminary construction, network skeleton, corridor building, and deep intensification. Railway network All four eras followed a path of ‘‘inland expansion.” Second, spatial distribution of accessi- Accessibility Spatiotemporal patterns bility and its evolution are analyzed. The spatial structure of China’s railway network is Urban systems characterized by ‘‘concentric rings” with its major axis in North China and the most acces- China sible city gradually migrating from Tianjin to Zhengzhou.
    [Show full text]
  • Geography & the Early Settlement of China
    History Alive Text Chapter 19 – Geography & the Early Settlement of China 19.1 – Introduction In this unit, you will explore the civilization of ancient China. This civilization flourished from about 1700 B.C.E. to 220 C.E. China is a large country in eastern Asia. It’s easy to use words like highest, largest, and longest when talking about China’s geography. The world’s highest mountains, the Himalayas, are in China. So is one of the world’s largest deserts, the Taklamakan Desert. China also boasts some of the longest rivers in the world. China’s climate is just as extreme as its physical features. The weather can vary from ice storms in the high mountains to the dreaded sandstorm of the Taklamakan Desert. During a sandstorm, the sky darkens until it feels like night. Hot, howling winds drive sand and gravel against you. The only way to survive is to wrap yourself in clothes or blankets and lie down until the storm passes. That could be hours or even days. As you can see, China is a land of contrasts . In this chapter, you will compare five geographic regions in China. You’ll learn about the climate, physical features and vegetation of each region. You’ll also discover how geography affected where the first Chinese settled, the way they lived and their ability to communicate with other civilizations. 19.2 – An Overview of China’s Geography Modern China is the third largest country in the world, after Russia and Canada. It covers about 3.7 million square miles.
    [Show full text]
  • China's Provincial Economies
    ANALYSIS China’s Provincial Economies: January 2019 Growing Together or Pulling Apart? Prepared by Introduction Steven G. Cochrane [email protected] Chief APAC Economist Over the past decade, China’s inland provinces have begun to narrow the gaps in output, incomes and productivity with their more dynamic coastal peers, but with economic growth Shu Deng slowing across China’s provincial economies, this period of convergence has come to a close. [email protected] Senior Economist In this paper, we examine regional patterns of economic growth across China’s provinces, comparing changes in industrial structure, productivity growth and demographics. While large Abhilasha Singh [email protected] investments in manufacturing, infrastructure and resource extraction helped narrow inland Economist provinces’ overall gap with the coast, the growing prominence of services—particularly high- tech service industries—will shift the locus of China’s growth back to its coastal provinces. Jesse Rogers [email protected] Economist Brittany Merollo [email protected] Associate Economist Contact Us Email [email protected] U.S./Canada +1.866.275.3266 EMEA +44.20.7772.5454 (London) +420.224.222.929 (Prague) Asia/Pacific +852.3551.3077 All Others +1.610.235.5299 Web www.economy.com www.moodysanalytics.com MOODY’S ANALYTICS China’s Provincial Economies: Growing Together or Pulling Apart? BY STEVEN G. COCHRANE, SHU DENG, ABHILASHA SINGH, JESSE ROGERS AND BRITTANY MEROLLO ver the past decade, China’s inland provinces have begun to narrow the gaps in output, incomes and productivity with their more dynamic coastal peers, but with economic growth slowing across China’s provincial economies, this period of convergence has come to a close.
    [Show full text]
  • The Evolving Geography of China's Industrial Production: Implications
    NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES THE EVOLVING GEOGRAPHY OF CHINA’S INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION: IMPLICATIONS FOR POLLUTION DYNAMICS AND URBAN QUALITY OF LIFE Siqi Zheng Cong Sun Ye Qi Matthew E. Kahn Working Paper 19624 http://www.nber.org/papers/w19624 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 November 2013 Siqi Zheng and Cong Sun thank National Science Foundation of China (No. 71322307, No. 70973065 and No. 71273154), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-12-0313), and Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program for research support. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer- reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. © 2013 by Siqi Zheng, Cong Sun, Ye Qi, and Matthew E. Kahn. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. The Evolving Geography of China’s Industrial Production: Implications for Pollution Dynamics and Urban Quality of Life Siqi Zheng, Cong Sun, Ye Qi, and Matthew E. Kahn NBER Working Paper No. 19624 November 2013 JEL No. L23,L38,L6,R14,R23,R28 ABSTRACT China’s rapid economic growth has been fueled by industrialization and urbanization. Given its export focus, this industrialization was spatially concentrated in the coastal eastern cities. Over the last decade, a spatial transformation has taken place leading to a deindustrialization of the rich coastal cities and sharp industrial growth in the inland cities.
    [Show full text]
  • From Japanese Colony to Sacred Chinese Territory: Taiwan’S Geostrategic Significance To
    © 2020 Twentieth Century China Journal, Inc. This material first appeared in Twentieth-Century China 45: 3 (2020) 351–368. Reprinted with permission by Johns Hopkins University Press. Accepted version downloaded from: http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/32503/ From Japanese Colony to Sacred Chinese Territory: Taiwan’s Geostrategic Significance to China STEVE TSANG SOAS China Institute, UK Twentieth Century China, 45-3 (October 2020) This paper shows that while China now attaches geostrategic importance to Taiwan, it has not always done so. It has only accorded such significance to Taiwan in the post-Mao era. By reviewing how Taiwan became a Japanese colony, how it came under the control of Chiang Kai-shek’s government, and how it came to be seen by the government of the People’s Republic of China as a sacred territory before being deemed geostrategically significant, this paper seeks to demonstrate that Taiwan’s importance to China is not based on geography, an immutable factor. Instead, it was the result of contingencies of history and the changed calculations of succeeding governments in China. This leads to the important conclusion that the geostrategic importance the Chinese government now attaches to Taiwan may change if the Chinese leadership alters its strategic calculus or if the government itself is replaced. KEYWORDS: Cairo Conference, first island chain, imagined geography, sacred territory, strategic calculation Since the People’s Republic of China (PRC) describes Taiwan as a "sacred territory" in its constitution, it is reasonable to assume that it attaches central importance to Taiwan.1 The 1 National People’s Congress of the PRC, Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, accessed September 12, 2016, http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/Constitution/2007- 11/15/content_1372962.htm.
    [Show full text]
  • High-Speed Economic Growth of 1984 US Dollar Versus Other Western Currencies Chinese Women Devoted to the Modernization Drive
    Vol. 28, No. 10 March 11, 1985 A CHINESE WEEKLY OF NEWS AND VIEWS High-Speed Economic Growth of 1984 US Dollar Versus Other Western Currencies Chinese Women Devoted to the Modernization Drive Jin Qunying (left), deputy chief engineer at the Yibin Chemical Plant in Sichuan Province, has been rewarded for her Lin Shengrong, a university graduate, works at the Gezhouba achievements in scientific research. SPOTLIQHT Hydroelectric Power Station. She worked out the programme for the computer-controlled cement mixer, which has greatly raised work efficiency. Zhang Aiping (right), a worker with thel Wang Hongyi, a Liuqin (a plucked string Dondong Wristwatch Plant in LiaoningI i instrument) player with a cultural troupe of ^rovince, fulfilled her 10-year prodyctioni the People's Liberation Army, often performs quota in five years. She was elected ol in border areas and on islands. She has deputy to the National People's Congress. received an award. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Vol. 28, No. 10 March 11, 1985 Reforms Invigorate 1984 Economy CONTENTS Among last year's economic successes was a 14.2 percent increase in the gross output value of industry and agriculture, NOTES FROM THE EDITORS 4 up to 1,062 billion yuan. More than 407 million tons of grain Party Consolidation Enters Second were harvested, keeping China's status as the word's largest Stage grain producer. Other achievements are also outlined in this article by the minister in charge of the State Economic Com• LEHERS 5 mission (p. 15). EVENTS & TRENDS 6-10 State Contracts Commercial Out• lets US Dollar Versus Other Western Currencies Auto Industry Hits Boom Times War on Rodents Marks Rot Year After analysing the factors favorable to the US dollar, this Women Claiming Their Legal article concludes that the US dollar's rapid rise will slow and Rights hover around the average 1984 level.
    [Show full text]
  • Zhu and Pickles-China Apparel Production.Pdf
    Journal of Contemporary Asia, 2014 Vol. 44, No. 1, 36–63, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2013.801166 Bring In, Go Up, Go West, Go Out: Upgrading, Regionalisation and Delocalisation in China’s Apparel Production Networks SHENGJUN ZHU & JOHN PICKLES Department of Geography, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA ABSTRACT The rise of China’s export-oriented apparel industry since the 1990s has been driven largely by global sourcing practices intent on capturing the cost advantages of a development model predicated, in part, on unskilled or semi-skilled migratory labour flows, linking western and central labour pools to coastal production sites. Until recently, the dominance of this model has fuelled growth in low-wage employment in the coastal regions and has provided few opportunities for economic and social upgrading. Since the early 2000s, coastal factories have increasingly had to confront difficulties generated by the increasing social and economic costs of this regionally concentrated low wage growth model. Specifically, this paper focuses on the role of the apparel industry in this process. It documents the major changes in organisation and geographies of economic activity in the industry, and demonstrates how the central and local state, domestic and international capital and Chinese and other Asian workers are shaping the changing organisation and geography of China’s apparel industry. The paper focuses particularly on firm strategies and state policies that have arisen in response to pressure to increase wages from workers,
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Communists and Rural Society, 1927-1934
    Center for Chinese Studies • CHINA RESEARCH MONOGRAPHS UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY NUMBER THIRTEEN CHINESE COMMUNISTS AND RURAL SOCIETY, 1927-1934 PHILIP C. C. HUANG LYNDA SCHAEFER BELL KATHY LEMONS WALKER Chinese Communists and Rural Society, 1927-1934 A publication of the Center for Chinese Studies University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 Cover Colophon by Shih-hsiang Chen Center for Chinese Studies • CHINA RESEARCH MONOGRAPHS UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY NUMBER THIRTEEN CHINESE COMMUNISTS AND RURAL SOCIETY, 1927-1934 PHILIP C. C. HUANG LYNDA SCHAEFER BELL KATHY LEMONS WALKER Although the Center for Chinese Studies is responsible for the selection and acceptance of monographs in this series, respon­ sibility for the opinions expressed in them and for the accuracy of statements contained in them rests with their authors. © 1978 by the Regents of the Universit y of California ISBN 0-912966-18-1 Library of Congress Catalog Number 78-620018 Printed in the United States of America $5.00 Contents INTRODUCTION ......... ........... .. .. ..... Philip C. C. Huang INTELLECTUALS, LUMPENPROLETARIANS, WORKERS AND PEASANTS IN THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT.................. 5 Philip C. C. Huang AGRICULTURAL LABORERS AND RURAL REVOLUTION . 29 Lynda Schaefer Bell THE PARTY AND PEASANT WOMEN 57 Kathy LeMons Walker A COMMENT ON THE WESTE RN LITERATURE. 83 Philip C. C. Huang REFERENCES . 99 GLOSSARY . .. .......... ................. .. .. 117 LIST OF MAPS I. Revolutionary Base Areas and Guerilla Zones in 1934 2 II. The Central Soviet Area in 1934 . 6 III. Xingguo and Surrounding Counties......... .. 10 1 The Jiangxi Period : an Introduction Philip C. C. Huang The Chinese Communist movement in its early years was primarily urban-based.
    [Show full text]
  • China's Geography
    China’s Geography: A Boon or Bane? 2 of 29 About the Author Colonel Ashish Sirsikar is a Senior Research Fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation. He undertakes research in the field of National Security & Defence Studies and specially focuses on China. http://www.vifindia.org © Vivekananda International Foundation China’s Geography: A Boon or Bane? 3 of 29 China’s Geography: A Boon or Bane? The Factor of Geography Well before China arose, its inherent geographical potential had been studied and commented upon by many. However, the true potential of Chinese geography was recognised by the English geographer Sir HJ Mackinder in his famous 1904 article, ‘The Geographical Pivot of History’1in which he posited that the Chinese, should they expand their power well beyond their borders, “might constitute the yellow peril to the world’s freedom just because they would add an oceanic frontage to the resources of the great continent, an advantage as yet denied to the Russian tenant of the pivot region”. Mackinder’s assertion was based on the indisputable premise that, whereas Russia, basically was and still is a land power with an oceanic front blocked by ice, China owing to its large temperate coastline was both a land power and sea power. Subsequently, Mackinder in his widely read and acclaimed piece ‘Democratic Ideals and Reality’ hadpredicted that, along with the United States and the United Kingdom, China would eventually guide the world by ‘building for a quarter of humanity a new civilization, neither quite Eastern nor quite western’2. A century on, some feel that Mackinder’s prophetic pronouncementsare turning into a reality and China’s geography is its greatest boon.
    [Show full text]
  • Geography of China Shang Dynasty (1700
    GEOGRAPHY OF CHINA China’s vast lands are covered by mountain ranges ZHOU and deserts. Two deserts, the Taklimakan and Gobi, prevented foreign visitors and invaders from DYNASTY(1050 - 256 BC) entering into Ancient China. The many mountain The right to rule China was determined by the ranges that cover Asia formed additional protective gods and if a dynasty no longer had the right to rule, barriers for China’s early dynasties. China’s mountains they could be conquered. The Zhou used this Mandate from the Greater Khingan Range in the northeast to of Heaven to conquer the Shang and gain control. The the Tian Shan Range in the northwest to the massive Zhou were the first dynasty to use iron. Additionally, 1500 mile Himalayas Range south of the Tibetan the Hundred Schools of Thoughts (about 770 BC - 222 Plateau all helped shape the history of Ancient China. BC), the Golden Age of Chinese philosophies, took place during their rule. In 771 BC, invaders from a neighboring kingdom forced the Zhou out of central China's Rivers China. The dynasty ruled for another 500 years, but China’s earliest dynasties began in the Huang He or the empire was smaller and less powerful. Yellow River Valley. Known as ‘China’s Sorrow’ because of its deadly and unpredictable flooding, the Yellow River flows across northern China to the Yellow Sea. QIN DYNASTY (221 - 206 BC) The river gets its name from the yellow loess (clay dust) After the Warring States period (400s - 221 BC), the that is deposited in the river as it flows across China.
    [Show full text]