A Summary of the Essay

The essay ‘China’s rise: Offensive or defensive realism’ by Ghazala Yasmin Jalil describes China’s foreign policy and argues against John Mearsheimer’s theory, which posits that China’s emerging great power is a revisionist force and a threat to the United States. The essay explains Mearsheimer’s theory of offensive realism, assesses his theory in accordance with China’s growing power, and argues that unlike Mearsheimer’s claim China’s political power is underpinned by defensive realism rather than offensive.

Examining Mearsheimer’s theory, the essay explains that states have a strong desire to maximize their power and the international system leads every country, with great power, to be the greatest one. The essay mentions that the theory is inspired by Waltz's idea of defensive realism. According to Waltz, it is not the human lust for power which pushes states to maximise their competence but the anarchic features of the international system. The essay outlines the basics of Mearsheimer’s theory and explains its auxiliary theory that great powers are confined to the sea boundaries and, therefore, while threats are possible, a worldwide hegemony is impossible.

The essay outlines positive changes in China’s policy since the 1970s. Jalil believes that China does not support the insurgency, China improves relations with neighbouring countries and the international community. China commits multilateral agreements, collaborates in international trade, develops regional infrastructure, and facilitates North Korea's dilemma. The essay interprets China's policy on Taiwan, its military modernisation and its increasing presence in the South China Sea under defensive realism. The essay objects Mearsheimer’s idea, which on the one hand, denies global hegemony, and on the other hand, claims that US concern about China's policy on Taiwan will lead to clashes between these two powers. The essay concludes that, far from being an aggressive revisionist power, China is just a status quo power and more than a threat to the US, it is an opportunity.

The essay provides a brief explanation of Mearsheimer’s theory and argues against it by providing China’s current and previous political behaviours since the 1970s. The essay develops the idea that China does not show a revisionist tendency and its growing power is not a threat to the US. The whole essay is written against the theory of John Mearsheimer. ‌ Jalil proposes that Mearsheimer’s theory is based on “assumptions”, which begs the question that to what extent the foundations of Mearsheimer’s theory is based on assumptions and to what extent they are based on facts. The essay does not provide any argument to prove that the fundamentals of Mearsheimer’s theory are really assumptions. This has reduced the level of reasoning of the paper. If there are some facts in the basics of Mearsheimer’s theory, then what does it mean with the quality of the paper to be unbiased. Furthermore, other factors need to be considered in US-China confrontation. The issue of Human Rights in China, even as a leverage to intervene, have a role in this context, which has remained largely ignored in this essay.

Reference:

Jalil, G. Y. (2019). China’s rise: Offensive or defensive realism. Strategic Studies, 39(1), 41-58. Retrieved from https://search-proquest com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/docview/2217797444?accountid=36155

Semiotic Analysis

This is an advertisement poster of the French trademark Evian watered bottle (Figure 1). At first glance, the dominant blue colour and the glossy images of activity and nature throughout the poster give a feeling of life being and impression of freshness. The objective of this advertisement is to create a visual metaphor that functions through a direct comparison of the branded product with the freshness of nature.

The picture of bottled water with the brand name of ‘evian’ and the text ‘NATURAL SPRING WATER” is placed at the centre of the poster. The rhetorical devices of hyperbole and visual conceit are used to emphasis the effectiveness and quality of this branded water. This is achieved through the effect of the juxtaposition of images that create a comparison that extends beyond seeing the likeness.  That is the emphasised comparison between the branded bottled water with the life-giving water in nature.

The colour of the background is vivid, shiny, reflective, fresh, no harming, and eye-catching. The wide-angle of imaginary landscape consists of comprehensive content. At the bottom of the poster is the picture of the sea with colourful algae and other marine lives expanded beneath the water. Just above the sea, the image of the world’s tallest building surrounded by other buildings, tropical trees, and a long sunny sandy beach at the foreground of the image are levelled at the middle of the poster. Fresh water falls down on the city from a magical spring above the trees, a red balloon rides over the buildings, a group of colourful birds flies over the city, and a skydiver approaches landing while the aircraft is still on the air. All these active images are placed inside the branded bottled. The cropped picture of the bottle with its white plastic lid placed at the top of the poster emphasised on the bottle as the overall source of the life. The poster represents that each instance of this vibrant life is watered by the subject brand of bottled water.

While the top of the bottle is high in the sky its bottom is deep inside the water shows that nature is its main source. From another point of view, the bottle is based inside the water and among the algae, fishes, humans, and plants to emphasise that it is made of a degradable plastic and environment-friendly. The elements of this poster composed around the visual impression of liquidity of water, which has been utilised to represent the ideas of moving, activity, and freshness.

Language and Thought

This is an outline of the arguments in the report by Derek Barry (2017) on the North West Star about Robert Carl Katter’s interview with Sky News, where Robert has objected on gays and said homosexuals people have “stolen” the word gay, ‘which used to mean happy’. The outlines listed here also signifies the relationship between language and thought which are exemplified within the words and the way they are used in this report.

1.     First of all, the report uses the word ‘gay’ in its title with the meaning which is under dispute in the article. Although the writer of the report has disagreed that the primary meaning of the word gay is ‘happy’, but he uses it intentionally and sarcastically, and this sarcasm reveals the relation of language and the position of the article at the very beginning.

2.     There is almost no word that is completely devoid connotation meaning. The writer uses the word ‘angry’ to explain the state of Robert during the interview.  It is a negative description and shows that Robert does not feel comfortable discussing the issue. It implicitly says that he is angry as he cannot argue his idea.

3.     The relation between the language that Robert uses and his idea can be easily noticed when he talks about ‘gay’ and ‘beauty’. Referring to Alexander Pope’s poem, Robert argues that the word ‘gay’ “it was the most beautiful word in the English language.” It can easily be understood that in Robert’s thought the whole group of gay people are not beautiful. Otherwise, he should not have complained about the correct use of the word.

4.     Robert uses the words “marriage’ and ‘freedom’ in a provocative way to warn others of the spread of homosexuality. Although he not saying that literally, but his language clearly reveals his thoughts. 

Reference:

Barry, D. (2017, August 24). Bob Katter is not gay about gays. The North West Star. Retrieved from https://www.northweststar.com.au/story/4878399/bob-katter-is-not-gay-about-gays/