Andrew Browne: 600 years after bringing home its armada, will China once again stride the world's stage?
Beijing
The wooden treasure ships commanded by Admiral Cheng-ho, a Chinese Ming dynasty eunuch, were among the largest vessels ever built, nautical monsters that by some accounts carried nine masts.
Bigger by far than the ships of Christopher Columbus that set out decades later for the New World, they were the flagships of an armada that ventured as far as the east coast of Africa on seven naval expeditions. The first embarked in 1405 bearing some 30,000 men; the seventh in 1430.
Then the expeditions suddenly stopped. Cheng-ho's adventures had helped to ruin Ming finances. The emperors put a halt to sea trade and closed the shipbuilding industry; China looked inward for the next four centuries. The expeditions to the "Western Seas" were a glorious aberration.
Now, at the dawn of the 21st century, the world is looking to China to assume an unfamiliar role of global leadership. At a time when American prestige is fading, China's status is rising.
President Barack Obama arrives in China next week seeking help on everything from climate change to North Korea's nuclear threat. At meetings of the Group of 20 nations, China's opinions are urgently sought on issues such as banking reform and executive pay. Persuading China to take a lead will be a challenge.
History has done little to prepare this country for the kind of leadership that an anxious international community seems so ready to thrust on it.
Unlike the U.S., China doesn't aspire to remake the world: Its longstanding mantra is "nonintervention" in the internal affairs of other countries. Even under Chairman Mao's reign, China never sought world domination, like the former Soviet Union—although it stirred up revolution in other parts of Asia and beyond. Now that China has largely discarded socialism, it's hard to find a definition for what remains of its ideology, values and world view...
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The wooden treasure ships commanded by Admiral Cheng-ho, a Chinese Ming dynasty eunuch, were among the largest vessels ever built, nautical monsters that by some accounts carried nine masts.
Bigger by far than the ships of Christopher Columbus that set out decades later for the New World, they were the flagships of an armada that ventured as far as the east coast of Africa on seven naval expeditions. The first embarked in 1405 bearing some 30,000 men; the seventh in 1430.
Then the expeditions suddenly stopped. Cheng-ho's adventures had helped to ruin Ming finances. The emperors put a halt to sea trade and closed the shipbuilding industry; China looked inward for the next four centuries. The expeditions to the "Western Seas" were a glorious aberration.
Now, at the dawn of the 21st century, the world is looking to China to assume an unfamiliar role of global leadership. At a time when American prestige is fading, China's status is rising.
President Barack Obama arrives in China next week seeking help on everything from climate change to North Korea's nuclear threat. At meetings of the Group of 20 nations, China's opinions are urgently sought on issues such as banking reform and executive pay. Persuading China to take a lead will be a challenge.
History has done little to prepare this country for the kind of leadership that an anxious international community seems so ready to thrust on it.
Unlike the U.S., China doesn't aspire to remake the world: Its longstanding mantra is "nonintervention" in the internal affairs of other countries. Even under Chairman Mao's reign, China never sought world domination, like the former Soviet Union—although it stirred up revolution in other parts of Asia and beyond. Now that China has largely discarded socialism, it's hard to find a definition for what remains of its ideology, values and world view...