China's rise challenges more than economies

But why should we assume that the underlying factor of China's influence is economic rather than political?

It is an international rule of thumb that a rising power will use economic muscle to pursue political, cultural and military goals, and it is the essence of a hegemonic power, which China clearly envisages as its goal. Do not assume that China will automatically become a Western style nation. That is just a wishful fantasy of the West.

China has been exerting increasing influence over the world using its massive growing economic clout. The Confucius Institute is ostensibly a way of Chinese cultural export to the West, but it really serves as a gradual indoctrination of current Chinese political system. The Chinese regime exploits the Western freedom of speech loop hole to procure media space to broadcast a favourable spin on current affairs, to permeate and indoctrinate Chinese nationals living in the West.

The view that China's global influences will mainly be economic is obsolete. China's politics and culture will also create huge influences. What may be the most shocking to the West is that China's rise will be cultural, political, ethical, plus more, rather than purely economic, and the influence of a rising China will far exceed that of a rising America in the past.

This raises a big question for us: Will China accept the international order as it is now, or will it change the fundamentals of the system in the long run?

Australia needs to maintain a good relationship with China to sustain reciprocal economic development. But it must also retain our fundamental values of human rights and commercial ethics. Australia will coexist with a rapidly rising China in the Asia-Pacific, and the challenges are foreseeable and unavoidable. Despite our inability to predict the future, the golden rule must be: if human lives are not directed by ethically correct ideas and notions, our development will be off track, thus endangering our earth.