Supping with a Long Spoon: Dependence and Interdependence in Sino-American Relations

Abstract

As China's involvement the world economy has deepened, Chinese leaders have sought to maintain a careful balance between the benefits offered by economic integration and the vulnerabilities it creates. The primary benefit is the chance to use foreign markets, capital and technology to fulfill the nationalist dream of turning China into a rich and powerful country. The vulnerabilities are felt on three fronts. First is a loss of control over popular thought within China. Deng Xiaoping's remark that when you open the window, flies and mosquitoes come in expressed both Chinese concerns about the domestic political impact of the foreign ideas that accompany increased integration and Deng's confidence that these problems could be managed. Other vulnerabilities are purely economic: increased integration into the world economy also means increased exposure to negative global economic trends, such as the oil shocks 1973 and 1979, the debt crisis the early 1980s, and the Asian economic crisis 199798. The third set of vulnerabilities involves power: international economic relationships can create an economic dependence that gives foreigners political leverage over China. Chinese leaders are well aware of the political consequences of economic relationships, not least because they themselves have utilized the lure of access to the Chinese market as an effective diplomatic tool. Throughout the reform period, Beijing has sought to control the process of China's integration into the world economy order to avoid excessive economic dependence on other countries. Other developing countries face similar dilemmas balancing the opportunities and vulnerabilities presented by greater integration into the world economy. But China's history of economic exploitation by foreigners and the