“Time changes, and our desires change,
What we believe – even what we are – is ever-changing,
The world is change,
Which forever take on new qualities”

Luís Vaz de Camões: Selected Sonnets - edited and translated by William Baer, University of Chicago Press, 2008

On 1st October of 2009, China will celebrate 60 years of sovereignty. And it was this that significantly changed its face. And it is also for this that now it is helping to change the face of the world. Sixty years after proclaiming the People´s Republic, China jumps once and for all onto the chessboard of world power as one of its main protagonists. And it tends to not only remain, but to increase its influence both in the political and economic spheres. Obviously, protected by a strong dissuasive military power. 

What was done so that China could leave such an adverse situation and become a world power and politically independent in a relatively short time? For many scholars or for wide sectors of the Chinese government itself, this event is essentially due to the policy of reform and opening-up started in 1978. Since as they are used to saying, by propelling the internal development of productive forces and withdrawing China from its political isolation, objective conditions were created for the accumulation of wealth and internal strengthening of this nation.

That is an acceptable reading but it may conceal the real source from which its force emanates. And if it is undeniable that the success obtained by the reforms forwarded by Deng Xiaoping from 1978, in our view, the main cause of its success was the strategy outlined by its main leaders for the construction of a truly sovereign state. In fact, since the People´s Republic was established, the development of this strategy was never neglected, despite the fierce disputes and conflicts lived out several times in the breast of the Chinese Communist Party. Thus, the reforms begun in 1978 may also be analyzed as one more moment in the application of this strategy. 

Today the Chinese set-up for its insertion and participation in the ranks of world politics can easily be verified. So much so that China can no longer be excluded from any internationally material question. As the owner of one of the largest reserves of foreign currency, ironically, it transformed itself into the largest creditor of the country which is the symbol of world capitalism, which is the United States. And undoubtedly, an actor of the first order. And if there was any doubt, the appearance of the present financial crisis helped to dissipate it. 

In the face of such a serious economic illness, China acts one of its best doctors, one of its most efficient medicines. And because of this it should emerge from this crisis with more strength. Apart from the anti-crisis medicine, it knew very well how to vaccinate itself so that the negative impacts could be mitigated. For example, when its exports to its main markets - United States and Japan - fell giddily, its sought new markets externally. It is not by chance that even in the deepest period of the crisis, its trade with many countries increased. Brazil is one case.

Another measure to detain the negative effects of the crisis and ensure a satisfactory level of growth was the government stimulus for the development of the internal market. The distribution of some benefits generated by the process of economic modernization tends to cause an increase in the level of satisfaction of large social contingents who live in the rural zone. The success of these measures should not only help contain the crisis, but for some time strengthen social cohesion, which is the fundamental basis for governability.  

But let us return to the development of the ideas that motivated these reflections. The end of the Qing Dynasty and the institution of the republic in 1911 did not resolve the main cause which was tearing it apart. It continued under external domination, with no strength or capacity to decide its destiny. The perception of external domination was clear to many. Sun Yat-sen, considered the father of the Chinese republic, in 1924, expressed the threat of this domination in the following way: “We are the poorest and weakest state in the world, occupying the lowest place in international business; the rest of humanity is the knife which cuts and the plate to be served while we are the fish and the meat. Our position now is extremely dangerous; if we do not seriously promote nationalism and keep together four hundred million Chinese into a powerful nation, we will be facing a new tragedy: the loss of our country and the destruction of our race”. (1) 

The reversal of this picture was the central conquest of these 60 years of the “New China”. It is not by chance that the 1st of October became so important in the contemporary Chinese calendar. It is the symbolic mark of the start of the realization of this feat. After the Spring Day Feast, during which the arrival of the New Year is celebrated, 1st October is the most expected date by a large part of the Chinese. Annually celebrated as a moment of freedom rather than a day, it turned itself officially into a week for its commemoration. For the people, an opportunity for rest, leisure and visits to family and friends. And for reflection. 

On that day in 1949, Mao Zedong was making a speech in Beijing and launched symbolically the foundation stone for the building of this “New China”. There he repeated to thousands of Chinese what he had stated already on the 21st September, at the opening of the historic Plenary Session I of the Political Consultative Conference of the Chinese People: “From now on the Chinese people are standing up” (“中国人民从此站立起来了！"). 

It is a polished phrase and expressed with clarity and Chinese determination to march in the contemporary world in a sovereign manner. Because not only Mao Zedong, but thousands of Chinese spent a significant part of their lives crouched in grottos and trenches, fighting among themselves or against external forces such as in the prolonged war against the Japanese occupation. 

But if it is true that the people were standing up, it is also true that this “New China” remained fragmented and decayed. Apart from anything else, it arose in a politically adverse international context, where the world of innocence in interstate relations was completely dissipated. Suffice it to say that in the first half of the XX century there were two great world conflicts. And the last, in 1945, the atomic attacks left the world in a state of shock. We must agree that in the face of the new correlation of forces that emerged from WWII, the construction of an effectively sovereign state was quite a complex task.   

The first steps would be (and were) difficult and decisive. In their first three years, the new Chinese republic fought in the Korean War against the forces of the United States or forces led by it. Chinese participation was decisive and distanced from part of  its frontiers, the forces which were considered hostile at that time.

The negative face of this success is that its military force came to generate mistrust from its main ally, the Soviet Union. The latter did not see favorably the division or questioning in the political field that was under its leadership. The theory of The Three Worlds may be seen as a different path from that adopted by the Soviet discourse which reinforced the division of the world into “socialists” and “imperialists”. The straining of these relationships soon happened. And in 1960, the Soviet Union withdrew from Chinese territory all its technicians, an important support for the Chinese recovery. But China continued firm with its proposition of sovereignty. And seven years later, Mao Zedong ironized the Soviet decision thus: “The missiles and the H bomb are great achievements. They are the fruit of the 'help from Khrushchev': by withdrawing their technical specialists, they obliged us to follow our own path. For this reason alone we deserve to be decorated.”(2)

Apart from the construction of arms of strong decisive power, the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (3) is an important document for understanding the Chinese determination to set itself up as sovereign country. It was the ideological arm on which China leaned in order to break with and to overcome its international isolation. This struggle had its greatest success at the end of 1971, when it was admitted into the United Nations. 

In finalizing these brief reflections, we would like to emphasize that the consolidation of Chinese power in the international scenario was characterized by its progressivity. The procedures for taking back Hong Kong in 1977 and Macau in 1999 reinforce this perception in us. These 60 years left clear that once the goal was defined - sovereign insertion on the international scenario - the march towards the consolidation of this objective has been uninterrupted. And the next steps? A creative form to solve the Taiwan question, reinforce China´s sovereignty and consolidate it territorial integration. China has patience.  

Notes: 
(1) The document mentioned here was pronounced in Canton on 27 January 1924. There is an excellent presentation and translation of the document done by Professors Mario Bruno Sproviero and Chen Tsung Jye in Revista China em Estudo, n.6, pages. 49-59, 2004, The Oriental Linguistics Department, FFLCH, University of São Paulo. (2) Daubier, Jean. History of the Chinese Cultural Revoltion, vol. II, p. 208. Editorial Presença, Lisbon, 1974. (3) These principles were developed by China but announced in 1954 by the Chinese prime minister Zhou Enlai and the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. They are: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; non-aggression ; non-intervention or interference in internal affairs; equality and mutual benfit; pacific coexistence.