The world has grown used to the restless pace of change in China. Another year, another 10 per cent. But like a parent who monitors an adolescent’s growth spurt by making notches on the doorpost, there is something to be said for keeping track. This is not merely a matter of recording China’s growth. In fact, the milestones I have in mind are harder to measure. Certainly this was the year that, in dollar terms, China’s economy surpassed Japan’s, a moment that will ensure 2010 a place in the history books. But in other ways too, the past year will be seen as crucial in China’s renaissance. Here, in no particular order, are seven notches on the doorpost.
Frown diplomacy: This was the year China’s regional “smile diplomacy” turned into a frown. This can be overstated. Beijing’s more assertive stance came partly in response to Washington’s attempt to re-engage more actively in the region, exemplified by its offer to mediate in disputes centred on the South China Sea. Beijing sees this as interference. It has allowed Chinese commentators to raise the idea that the whole South China Sea is a “core interest”, making it non-negotiable on a par with Taiwan and Tibet. In a separate dispute, over the Senkaku/ Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea, Tokyo was taken aback by Beijing’s shriller tone after its arrest of a Chinese fisherman for ramming a Japanese vessel. Some Asian diplomats – scared of being left alone with a robust China – are trying to draw the US more fully into the region’s fledgling institutions.
Google: China was prepared to call Google’s bluff when the US company threatened to withdraw from the country. Put another way, Google was prepared to call Beijing’s bluff by pulling back from the world’s biggest – though not most profitable – internet market. Either way, China has begun to take a different attitude to the multinational companies whose investments and technology it once craved. Having absorbed much foreign technology, it now seems to be tilting the playing field in favour of its own companies.