Will China take over the world?

The Warlpiri might offer a clue.

Because of my Chinese background and my interest in politics, people like to grill me about China. The top interrogative question is: “Will China take over the world?”

People are worried - rightfully so. If China has such ambition, it means a direct clash with the U.S. is inevitable. In other words, a tragedy of great powers that will upend the whole world.

But really, this is an asshole question because there is only one convincing answer. Arguing China will never usurp the world is like saying your good neighbor John will never kill someone. Yes, we know John is a decent guy with a happy family and a clean criminal record. But what if? What if he is drafted and sent to the battlefield? What if, God forbid, his family is murdered by a drug gang and he takes matters into his own hands? Until John dies, no one can assert that John will never kill.

A country is more complex than an individual. Besides, virtually all countries had sought hegemon status and the associated benefits when they felt it was within reach. So long as China exists as a country, it is impossible to vindicate China from the alleged ambition of usurping the global hegemony from the U.S.

I never see China having such an ambition. A group of indigenous people offer a good argument for my case.

The Warlpiri people are indigenous to Central Australia. Their language, Warlpiri, is distinctive because it has no vocabulary for colors. Instead of using yellow, blue, red, etc. to describe colors, they have only a variety of words to describe an object’s function, texture, and touch feeling.

Then how can one explain the concept of color to a Walpiri? Well, one cannot. Since the language does not contain such a concept, a Walpiri may never fully grasp the concept of color unless she learns a new language.

This is the exact challenge when I am translating a book from English to Mandarin Chinese. The book on international relations is by one of my favorite professors at Harvard, Stephen Walt, on U.S. foreign policy. My key challenge was to find a perfect equivalent of the English word “hegemony” in Mandarin. Turns out, THERE IS NO SUCH WORD.

The closest thing in Mandarin is “霸权(despot power).” It has none of the positive connotations that “hegemony” contains: none of the primacy, the leadership, nor the commitment to maintain peace and order; just the coercive use of power for the hegemon’s own interests.

What makes the Chinese view “despot” so negatively? It’s in our history. Of the handful of “despots” prominent enough to be recorded in China’s history, none of them ended well. (We have a relatively long history, so the bar to make it is actually quite high.) These “despots” had power, but their despot behaviors weakened their power, for which they paid hefty prices – usually with their lives.

The earliest and most frequently-referred “despot” is probably Xiang Yu, a brilliant general from roughly two thousand years ago. His big ego and cruelty weakened his support and rendered a disastrous military defeat. Finally, he chose to commit suicide.

Since then, the term “霸(despot)” has been used to describe several historical actors. Interestingly, a more recent “hegemon,” or “despot power” in the Mandarin incarnation, was the Soviet Union.

One can argue whether the U.S. is indeed a global “despot power,” but that’s irrelevant. Because the Chinese have such an intrinsic, negative perception of the concept of “hegemony,” it is difficult to fathom how the Chinese would quest for “taking over the world,” at least in the short term.

Since Mandarin does not have the vocabulary to describe “hegemon” — if you question a Chinese national if she wants China to become a “despot power,” the closest thing to “hegemon” in Mandarin, your subject will probably be perplexed. Because, why would anyone want THAT?

This is not to say that China has zero global ambitions. It does. The country’s prosperity depends on its integration with the world. To China, the world not just includes the U.S and Europe but all other countries as well, like Nigeria and the Philippines. One feature differentiates China from a despot: China’s relationships with other countries are consensual, not coercive, and are primarily commercial.

Countries are complex. A simple argument based on linguistic and historical evidence is insufficient to predict a country’s behavior in one direction or the other. The Chinese can still invent a Mandarin word for “hegemony” if somehow the country acquires a burning desire to “take over the world”. But so far, there is no such evidence, other than unsubstantiated suspicions and fabricated narratives.

Unfortunately, we live in a trying time. There are many, many good reasons to be worried, even paranoid.

But knowing better the presumed rivals – not just what they do, but also how they sense – makes one realize that our rivals are human beings, just like ourselves. This realization at least should give us some relief and hope in this strange, strange world.

---

About me: I am a Chinese national. I came to the U.S. for college and then stayed afterward. I got my Bachelors, took a job on Wall Street, got married, started my little family here, and then attended leading graduate schools in the U.S. on business and politics. I am proud of my Chinese background, and I have enjoyed my experience in the U.S.

As someone who “gets it” on both sides, I want to tell real China stories in a way that you can relate. I will probably never change your political views – and I do not plan to. Empathy is what I strive for, a sentiment that’s crucial in this contentious time of ours. You don’t have to agree with the Chinese, including me. But you want to know them better: not just what they do, but why they do it.