The Yellow River civilization perhaps one of the most influential of early civilisations its descendants having the likes of Confucious, Sun Tzu, Bian Que and more. Let's take a look at the rise, fall and the second coming of this Civilisation.
Historically China has been the hub of trade and culture, starting the silk route and conquering indirectly the countries it went through China has been one of the biggest players in the world. It had extensive trade networks making it one of the first cosmopolitan areas in the old world as we know it, Chinese Rulers were perhaps kings of kings due to the sheer amount of wealth they had amassed by trading silk and textiles. It is said that courtiers in China only knew how to speak in Latin due to earlier Macedonian Influence in the region and that any foreigner who wished to talk with the king had to know the language almost until the Qing Dynasty.
The History of China or well Mainland China is highly extensive full of treacheries, empires and warfare it would be almost impossible to go over it all in just one article but let's look at the modern history of China to understand what it is doing today.
The Opium Wars fought in the 1800s marked something sinister they marked the rise of Western Powers in trade and technology. China had been the centre of both these things due to two things, one its location and two the sheer amount of people it had, the Opium Wars showed China that external powers are ready to overpower it if required, to get what they wanted this was worrying for china because it solely depended on these two to keep its economy running, in a heavily modernised world, China stood no chance. After the War of Liberation and the Proclamation of The People's Republic of China, one notes heavy industrialisation in the region generating jobs and improving standards of living en mass, under the so-called communist regime the Mainland flourished for a good amount of time with soviet aid and a general willingness to work for the betterment of the Chinese Nation. However, China has taken a rather dark turn in recent times after General Secretary Mao passed away and his cult of personality started to fade away one sees China starting to fall again, the hype had somewhat died out.
After a revitalisation of Chinese Culture, the people once again had put faith into its leaders and wanted to see the rise of the great country and for a change, the politicians of a country wanted what its people wanted. Rather astounding indeed, but how do you go about that when you're facing constant sanctions from the biggest economic powerhouse in the world? This is a question China struggles to answer. Right now it's trying to bring it back to a stage of former glory when China was the hub of attention when everyone wanted to come to China it wants to Make China Great Again. These can be seen by their Belt and Road Initiative and by the fact that they're slowly but surely taking over important ports from other countries. This signifies a change a new spectre, the spectre of China.
The Indian Perspective
In light of recent events though India has a golden opportunity, if it is able to act as the democratic alternative to China it would see a huge wave of prosperity helping it's desparate economy and aiding it's trade alliances. However it also needs to remember that if it makes a mistake in assessing it's foreign policy it would be completely cut off from essential commodities starving an already bad off population.
~ Aadi Sardesai
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