CHINA’S VISION OF VICTORY, by Jonathan D. T. Ward

A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance

By Benjamin Montoya

 

Editor’s Note

Today we offer another “Bonus” Book Summary addressing matters of contemporary cultural concerns. We hope you enjoy.

 

About the Author

Jonathan D. T. Ward (D.Phil., Oxford University) is the Founder of Atlas Organization, a Washington D. C. and New York based consultancy focused on the rise of India and China, and on US-China global competition. He studied China’s relationship with India as part of his D.Phil. at Oxford, thus acquainting him thoroughly with China.

 

Introduction

China has a “Vision of Victory” that everyone needs to be aware of, especially as they come even closer to achieving it. What is it about? What should we think about it? Ought we to be concerned? What can we do about it? Read Ward’s insightful explanation to learn more.

 

Table of Contents

Part I: 中华民族伟大复兴 “The Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation”: China’s Vision of National Destiny.
1.1  National Resurrection
1.2  National Resurrection
1.3  “Hide Your Brightness, Bide Your Time”: Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin
1.4  “The Period of Strategic Opportunity”: Hu Jintao
1.5  “The China Dream”: Xi Jinping
1.6  “The New China” Meets “The China Dream”
1.7  From “the Peaceful Rise of China” to “Fighting the Bloody Battle Against Our Enemies”
1.8 From “Able To Fight And Win Wars” to “Preparing to Fight and Win Wars”

 

Part II: 蓝色国土 “Blue National Soil”: China’s Strategic Geography and Military Plans
2.1  The Military Rise of China
2.2  New Technologies, New Frontiers
2.3  Internal Security and Homeland Defense: China’s Traditional Military Geography
2.4  The New World Map: Regional Expansion and a Global Military Presence
2.5  Toward 2049: China’s Vision of Military Power

 

Part III: 赶上美国，超过美国 “Catch up to America, Surpass America”: China’s Economic and Technological Ambitions
3.1  “Comprehensive National Power”
3.2  Made in China 2025: Mastering Future Industries and Going Global
3.3  The Importance of Economic Power: Technology and National Strength
3.4  China’s Economy: Rejuvenation’s Engine
3.5  China’s Ambitions in Technology and Innovation
3.6  China Goes Global: State and Private Enterprise Take on the World
3.7  Toward 2049: China’s Vision of Economic Power

 

Part IV: 国家利益不断拓展 “The Ceaseless Expansion of National Interests”: China’s Growing Global Reach
4.1  Overview: China’s Need for the World’s Resources
4.2  China in The Middle East
4.3  China in Africa
4.4  China in Latin America
4.5  China in the Arctic and Antarctic
4.6  The Indo-Pacific: The Indian Ocean Region and South Pacific States
4.7  China And The “Major Powers”: The United States, Russia, India, Japan, And Europe

 

Part V: 人类命运共同体 “A Community of Common Destiny for Mankind”: China’s Vision for the New World Order
5.1  China’s Vision for World Order
5.2  A Global “Middle Kingdom”
5.3  “Interior Vassals” and “Exterior Vassals” in the “Community of Common Destiny for Mankind”
5.4  A World Transformed: A Day in the Life of Chinese Power
5.5  2049: China’s Vision of a New World Order

 

 

Summary:

Part I: 中华民族伟大复兴 “The Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation”: China’s Vision of National Destiny.

The Chinese nation has a plan in place for a great rejuvenation of their nation that has been in place for some time. What is it about? How will it happen? What ought we to think about it?

The plan itself goes by several names: “The Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation,” “Resurrection of the Fatherland,” “China Dream,” “Road to Renewal,” “The New China.” The essence of this plan is that China will recover from the struggles it faced during periods following the Opium War to become a world power that is greater than anyone else. And, like many business plans, they have a date by which they intend to become the top world power: 2049. This is the date by which they intend to have enacted with Vision of Victory. This date marks the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

This vision goes back for some time and has changed its focus throughout the years. It began as a peaceful rebuilding of China. The leaders of the country wanted to rebuild the country to the place of prominence they had before. This plan has been part of their political agenda for some time. The plan itself originated with one of their leaders, Mao. His plan was to lift the country from the decay and devastation. He wrote,

Two possible destinies await China, a bright destiny and a gloomy destiny … Either a China independent, free, democratic, united and prosperous, i.e. a bright China, a new China with her people liberated, or a China semi-colonial, semi-feudal, divided, poor and weak, i.e. an old China. A new China or an old China: these two prospects lie before the Chinese people, the Chinese Communist Party and our Congress.

Mao’s version of the plan seeks to better China from the difficulties they had faced. But what is particularly concerning is how their verbiage has changed throughout the years. They went from saying things like “the peaceful rise of China” to “fighting the bloody battle against our enemies.” Similarly, the focus has gone from “the peaceful rise of China” to “able to fight and win wars.” Ward explains it as follows:

China is undertaking something dangerous: dangerous for itself, but most importantly, dangerous for the United States and for the wider world…And China’s “legitimate rights and interests” are sacrosanct, to be defended through the use of force. It is up to other countries to accede to this, not for China to bend its own behavior. This sentiment is at the ideological heart of China’s rise. It is not only a new horizon that the country aspires to, but a sense of what was taken from China, and what must be taken back.

What can the US do about China’s rise to power? There are at least three things:

1. The United States must remain the world’s top economic power.
2. The United States must work with the world’s democracies—with nations around the globe who share our values and our political systems— in order to preserve an international system of power superior to anything which China can achieve….

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