China Research

China has in recent decades developed into a political and economic global powerhouse, passing by Russia in superpower terms and – in many respects – getting much closer to the United States. Is China in other words regaining its own historical status as the “Middle Kingdom” which still serves as the classical name for the modern China?

“Zhongguo” – then and today

In English, one usually applies the term of “Middle Kingdom” for the old China from back to some thousand years ago. Swedes speak about the “Mittens rike” and Germans about the “Reich der Mitte” – all of them expressing something like the “empire or country of the middle”.

Historically, the Chinese have been defining their country as “zhongguo” of which “zhong” meant middle and “guo” something like state or country. In the beginning, “zhongguo” was standing for the flourishing region along the Yellow River but started later to describe China as the self-image center of the universe. And still today, “zhongguo” is widely used by the Chinese and aims at the country as a whole and its sovereignty.

When regarding the latter aspect, I remember many discussions with the Chinese in the past two decades or so who seemed to be convinced that China rapidly was about to be re-organized as the political and economic center of the world. In many respects – though not all – this scenario of China’s ongoing move to really becoming the political and economic center of the modern world – is on its way to come true.

At least, we can recognize already some revival of the historical Chinese “Magic Kingdom” as the/a global center. But the Chinese political leadership certainly wants more than “some revival” …

I wish today all readers all the best until I come back after my summer break.

Hubert Fromlet
Affiliate Professor at the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University