China and the Balance of Power
The last two decades has seen communist China’s economy boom, allowing it to take its place in the international arena next to other highly successful capitalist states such as the United States of America, Russia and Japan (Dunne & Schmidt, 2001). Specifically, China’s GDP has tripled in less than two decades (Jones, 2007, pp. 21). As such, there has been a large escalation in commentary regarding this shift, in particular from those who see an increasingly powerful China as a threat internationally. Realist’s such as Mearsheimer (2006), Segal and Goodman (1997) and Ross and Feng (2008) tell us that the further gaining of power of China will most certainly lead to war as the hegemonic United States of America races to maintain power and security. Part of this realist process, the balancing of power it will be argued in this essay, has already begun. That is, China has already begun to form alliances with states in the East Asia region in order to check the power of the United States of America in the case of containment. As Realism continues today to be a useful theory of International Relations (Dunne & Schmidt, 2001), this position cannot be ignored. Hence, the understanding of this situation and its consequences is crucial, not just in America but also globally.
The central debate regarding this state of affairs focuses on those who believe that the rise of China will be a peaceful process without the need for the balancing of power and those who believe that the process has already begun as China moves itself into a hugely powerful regional position, able to defend itself from any United States advance. This later position is based on the Realist belief that States are paranoid and fearful of competing States and will move to contain the threat as was seen in the Cold War (Mearsheimer, 2006). This essay will firstly explore the position that China is not in the process of balancing power and that it is not planning on...