International Implications

Abstract

China has experienced a rapid process of modernization thanks to 20 years of reform. However, perception of China’s rise and its global impact has been polarized between two views. One view holds that China is and will continue to act as a stabilizer, because to modernize China’s economy, China needs foreign investment, foreign markets and hence regional stability. The other believes that China is already a destabilizer and will surely become increasingly so with increased power, due to China’s memory of a century of humiliation by Western powers and its need to right the wrongs of history or, simply, to become driven by a big power’s ego.