Influence if China on the West Essay

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China on the West

UNPRECEDENTED, CHALLENGING

Risen Power

Freed at last from 150 years of humiliation as a worthless Soviet-style command economy and nation, China first became a "rising power" and then as an actual "risen power (Brookes 2005). Unprecedented economic reforms two decades ago led to its amazing economic growth and expansion. Achieving an almost double-digit growth in the last two decades, China has clearly restored its old grandeurs as the "Middle Kingdom." Chinese analysts believe this immense growth will continue and challenge traditional world powers, including the United States, in dominion and control of international mechanisms. At present, it has the largest population in the world and the second largest defense budget and ranks as the second largest economy. These capabilities allow China to play big roles in global politics. It is not only a permanent member of the UN Security Council. It is also a nuclear weapons state. Its political clout is growing beyond Asia too. It has been playing major roles in international issues, such as weapons proliferation, human rights and energy security. In the next decades, China can visualize coming to its "rightful place" among established great powers in the world system, possibly on top of them (Brookes).

China's Gifts to the West

China was already conducting trade with Europe and other countries when Christopher Columbus discovered the territory, which became America (Bodde, 2005). China endowed the West and the rest of the world with material and intellectual gifts, which greatly contributed to civilization. Among its material gifts in the form of goods, inventions and discoveries are silk, porcelain, tea, paper, printing, gunpowder, the compass, lacquer, medicines, plants, kits, playing cards, intensive breeding, wallpaper, the folding umbrella, and the sedan chair or palanquin used as comfortable transportation means (Bodde).

In addition, the Chinese contributed ideas, which helped shape political and social development in the West (Bodde, 2005).

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These ideas include the origins and influence of the civil service system, alchemy and chemistry, agricultural methods, thought in the Age of Enlightenment, Western literature and Western political and economic theories (Bodde).

Civil Service System - This is one of the established institutions in modern democracies (bode, 2005). It did not originate from America itself or from Europe. It took after the systems of Britain and France, which adopted the same system from an earlier source. China inaugurated the first merit system of competitive government examinations in the year 165 BC (Bodde).

Literature -- A Chinese tale written in the 9th century appears to be the oldest version or original of the famous story of Cinderella (Bodde, 2005). The next version appeared 700 years later in 1544 in Lyons, France. The original was written by a Chinese scholar named Tua Ch'eng-shih, who gathered and published strange and supernatural stories. One of them came from a "caveman" from South China. That original dealt with the same lessons on human virtues, which were later adapted in the Western world (Bodde).

Alchemy -- The Chinese initiated this ancient art, which later evolved into modern chemistry (Bodde, 2005). They pioneered in experiments to convert base metals into precious ores. Their theories attracted the attention of others in the 18th century. It is commonly believed that alchemy evolved from Alexandria in the early centuries after Christ. The practitioners were applying philosophical ideas dating back to the ancients. Records state that Chinese alchemy dates back to more than 2 centuries before those practiced in Alexandria in 133 BC. Chinese alchemy is rooted in the theory that the fundamental law of the universe is constant change (Bodde).

The Age of Enlightenment Thought -- European scholars who lived in China in the 17th….....

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