Remodelling the Global Development Landscape: the China Model and South–South cooperation in Latin America

Abstract

China's explosive growth and growing international influence have prompted policy makers and scholars to question how that country will reshape the global development landscape. While Western observers have used the concept of the China Model to describe China's development strategies and the potential threat they pose to Western liberal traditions, Chinese policy makers have promoted South–South cooperation to emphasise China's goal of a harmonious world order based on nation-state sovereignty and mutual benefits. This article explores these two competing organising principles with a focus on how each concept frames global development politics and China's relations with its development partners. Drawing on ethnographic research on China's new relationship with Costa Rica, I examine the assumptions and effects of these concepts in terms of how they shape specific development encounters. These examples suggest the intransigence of historical development inequalities and identities, which both support and limit China's global impact in significant ways.

Notes

1 S Halper, The Beijing Consensus, New York: Basic Books, 2010, p 26.

2 Given that these new donors ‘remain developing countries and still face poverty at home’. M Tran, ‘China and India to join aid partnership on new terms’, Guardian, 1 December 2011, at http://www.guardian.co.uk.

3 Ibid.

4 Throughout the article, I use the terms ‘North’ and ‘South’, ‘First’ and ‘Third’, and ‘West’, to echo the terms articulated by specific actors rather than to reify particular divisions within the development landscape.

5 As was evident at international climate talks in Durban, December 2011.

6 irin, ‘Who's who among the “new” aid donors?’, Guardian Development Network, 25 October 2011, at http://www.guardian.co.uk.

7 M Tran, ‘Hillary Clinton declares US support for aid initiative’, Guardian, 30 November 2011, at http://www.guardian.co.uk.

8 A Tsing, Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.

9 The Chinese presence dates from 16th century merchant connections to 19th century imports of Chinese contract labour to 20th century ‘free’ migrants who constructed regional railroads. See E Hu-DeHart, ‘Coolies, shopkeepers, pioneers: the Chinese of Mexico and Peru (1849–1930)’, Amerasia, 15, 1989, p 92; and A Hearn & J Leon-Manriquez (eds), China Engages Latin America: Tracing the Trajectory, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2011.

10 World Bank, Latin America and the Caribbean's Long-Term Growth, Annual Report, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2011, p 22.

11 K Gallagher & R Porzencanski, The Dragon in the Room, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010, p 16. See also M Ferchen, ‘China–Latin America relations: long-term boon or short-term boom?’, Chinese Journal of International Politics, 4, 2011, pp 55–86.

12 See J Cheung & T Cordoba, ‘The establishment of diplomatic relations with China: a study of Costa Rica's rationale’, Journal of Comparative Asian Development, 8(2), 2009, pp 333–364; and O Von Feigenblatt, ‘Costa Rica and the two Chinas’, Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences, 1(2), 2009, pp 400–434.

13 La Cámara de Industria y Comercio Chino-Costarricense, ‘Hacia una nueva estratégia de desarrollo de Costa Rica’, Gong Shang, October–November 2009, p 17.

14 Personal communication, 27 July 2011.

15 J Cooper Ramo, The Beijing Consensus, London: Foreign Policy Centre, 2004. See also A Dirlik, ‘Beijing Consensus: Beijing ‘Gongshi’: who recognizes whom and to what end?’, Globalization and Autonomy Online Compendium, 17 January 2006, at http://www.globalautonomy.ca.

16 For historical shifts, see B Dickson, ‘Updating the China Model’, Washington Quarterly, 34(4), 2011, pp 39–58. For an overview of definitions, see R Peerenboom, China Modernizes: Threat to the West or Model for the Rest?, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007; and J Kurlantzick The Charm Offensive, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007. For critiques, see B Naughton, ‘China's distinctive system: can it be a model for others?’, Journal of Contemporary China, 19(65), 2010, pp 437–460; S Kennedy, ‘The myth of the Beijing consensus’, Journal of Contemporary China, 19(65), 2010, pp 461–477; and Y Huang, ‘Rethinking the Beijing Consensus’, Asia Policy, 11, 2011, pp 1–26.

17 Dickson, ‘Updating the China Model’, p 41. See also Lai-Ha Chan, PK Lee & G Chan, ‘Rethinking global governance: a China model in the making?’, Contemporary Politics, 14(1), 2008, pp 3–19; S Zhao, ‘The China Model: can it replace the Western model of modernization?’, Journal of Contemporary China, 19(65), 2010, pp 419–436; and J Lagerkvist, The Limits of the China Model: Report from Conference Proceedings on Authoritarian Capitalism, Stockholm: Glasshouse Forum, 2008.

18 See M Ferchen, ‘Whose China model is it anyway?’, Review of International Political Economy, iFirst, April 2012, pp 1–31, on convergences between the China Model and the Washington Consensus.

19 Halper, The Beijing Consensus, p 2. Other examples include B Gertz, The China Threat, Washington, DC: Regnery Publishers, 2000; and M Jacques, When China Rules the World, New York: Penguin Press, 2009.

20 ‘The Beijing consensus is to keep quiet’, The Economist, 6 May 2010, at http://www.economist.com/node/16059990. See also B Dickson, ‘Beijing's ambivalent reformers', Current History, 103(674), 2004, pp 249–255.

21 W Zhang, ‘China: the new global model for development’, New Perspectives Quarterly, 24(1), 2007, pp 12–14; and P Wei, ‘The Chinese model of development’, presentation for the Foreign Policy Centre, London, 11 October 2007.

22 Personal communication, 7 July 2011.

23 Personal communication, 28 July 2011.

24 P Ford, ‘The rise of an economic superpower: what does China want?’, Christian Science Monitor, 5 November 2011, at http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/1105/The-rise-of-an-economic-superpower-What-does-China-want.

25 J Jian, ‘The myth of the “China Model” in Africa, Asia Times, 4 September 2011, at www.atimes.com; and D Brautigam, The Dragon's Gift, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

26 A Muscara, ‘Latin America's gaze increasingly turns east’, Interpress Service, 30 March 2011, at http://ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=55058. See also Ferchen, ‘China–Latin America relations', for a critique of that view.

27 See C Lancaster, ‘The Chinese aid system’, Center for Global Development, 2007, at www.cgdev.org; and S Zhao, ‘The China model’, Journal of Contemporary China, 19(65), 2010, pp 419–436 for a fuller discussion of China's aid policies.

28 E Barranguet, ‘China the master stadium builder’, Africa Report, 2 July 2010, at http://www.theafricareport.com.

29 ‘China, Latin America join hands in creating model for South–South Cooperation’, People's Daily, 22 November 2008, at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6538421.html.

30 ‘China seeks comprehensive, cooperative partnership with Latin America, Caribbean Countries’, People's Daily, 5 November 2008, at http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90883/6527890.html.

31 Personal communication, 27 July 2011.

32 Personal communication, 7 July 2011.

33 Ibid.

C McEwan, Postcolonialism and Development, London: Taylor & Francis, 2009, p 13; and W Mignolo, ‘The global South and world dis/order’, Journal of Anthropological Research, 67, 2011, pp 165–188.

35 See A Escobar, ‘Beyond the Third World’, Third World Quarterly, 25(10), 2004, pp 207–230.

36 S Jiang, ‘The Chinese foreign policy perspective’, in R Roett & G Paz (eds), China's Expansion into the Western Hemisphere, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2008, p 29; and M Zhan, Other Wordly, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009, p 38–39.

37 Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (mofa), ‘China's stand on South–South cooperation’, 18 August 2003, at http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjdt/wjzc/t24884.htm#.

38 mofa, ‘Act of relations between Costa Rica and China’, 2007, at http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2008/septiembre/10/opinion1695379.html

39 C Pletsch, ‘The three worlds, or the division of social scientific labor circa 1950–1975’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 23(4), 1981, pp 565–590.

40 J Hubbert, ‘The Darfur olympics’, Positions, forthcoming.

41 undp, Human Development Index, at http://hdr.undp.org/en; and Associated Press Beijing, ‘China raises rural poverty line’ Guardian UK, 20 November 2011, at http://www.guardian.co.uk.

42 La Nación, Revista Estadio Nacional, San José: Impresion Comercial de Grupo Nación GN, March 2011, p 98.

43 N Garcia, ‘Trabajador chino murió en construcción del Estadio Nacional’, Teletica, 22 November 2010, at http://www.teletica.com/relacionadas.php?id=3397&pag=120.

44 ‘China abre su millonario regalo a Costa Rica’, Nuevo Diario, 2011, at http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni.

45 Ibid.

46 L Monge, ‘Obras en manos ticas brillan por su lentitud’, Teletica, 2010, at http://www.teletica.com/relacionadas.php?id=3397&pag=120.

47 S Freedman, ‘Costa Rican football fans celebrate opening of stadium built by China’, 30 March 2011, at http://www.guardian.co.uk.

48 Personal communication, 28 July 2011.

49 R Quiros, ‘Percepciones y actitudes políticas con respecto a la minoría china en Costa Rica 1879–1911’, Historia y Espacio, 32, 2009, pp 6–9, at http://historiayespacio.com/rev32/art6.html; and L Siu, Memories of a Future Home, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005.

50 Personal communication, 21 July 2011.

51 Personal communication, 9 November 2011.