‘Between the two Olympics, China has seen a fundamental shift in every sense,’ says Vijay Gokhale
The Hindu
From domestic politics to foreign policy, China has changed dramatically since 2008, says the former Foreign Secretary
Fourteen years after Beijing hosted the Olympics, the Chinese capital will, on February 4, launch the Winter Olympic Games in a grand opening ceremony. From 2008 to 2022, China has seen a huge shift in its domestic politics as well as in its relations with the world, says , former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador to China. Excerpts from an interview.
The period between the two Olympics has seen a very fundamental shift in China in every sense. In 2008, when China held the Beijing Olympics, it reached the apogee of global respect. It had grown for 25 straight years with double-digit growth. It had majorly contributed to global trade and business. It had expanded diplomatic influence across the world in those 20, 25 years. And the Beijing Olympics were meant to be the crowning glory of that remarkable period of China’s growth.
Subsequently, after a very successful Olympic Games was held by them, in the global financial crisis, while the rest of the world faltered, China was able to keep the global engine ticking away because of the massive infusion of close to $1 trillion dollars in terms of structural adjustment support. As a result, the sense within China was that the 2008 Olympic Games were a coming of age. The global financial crisis only confirmed to them that this was not simply a passing phenomenon and that China’s position was going to go from strength to strength thereafter. It was during this period, therefore, that corresponding changes came in China’s foreign and national security policy, as well as in its general approach to international relations.
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