A research academic says China’s quest for power is a lot more complicated than just resources and financial gain.

The Lowy Institute’s director of the East Asia Program Dr Merriden Varrall said there’s nothing to be gained from the conflict if the world keeps trying to force China to see things through our lens.

It comes as the emerging superpower has taken a more assertive stange on the issue, ignoring international warnings which have even prompted the question of a possible Third World War.

Australia is not immune from the conflict, with the Federal opposition recently announcing a Labor government would allow the Australian Defence Force to conduct a freedom-of-navigation exercise in the waters.

Labor defence spokesman Richard Marles said a future Labor government would allow the Australian military to conduct a freedom-of-navigation exercise in the South China SeaSource:News Corp Australia

“Our view is very clearly that the ADF, the navy should be fully authorised to engage in freedom of navigation operations. It’s important that we are asserting our rights to navigate the high seas under international law,” Labor defence spokesman Richard Marles told Fairfax Media.

“In our view, there should be full authorisation to engage in freedom of navigation operations which are entirely consistent with international law, and entirely consistent with the Court of Arbitration’s ruling.”

Speaking at the ASEAN Forum 2016, Dr Varrall said there are four key reasons China is so relentlessly pursuing a return to power, and it goes much deeper than just resources and financial gain.

Here’s why China doesn’t see its rise and its place in the world the same way Australia or the US might.

CHINA THINKS POWER IS ITS HISTORICAL RIGHT

Firstly, Dr Varrall says China follows a specific narrative for its past, present and future.

It sees its rise to power as a return to “the natural order of things” — they basically believe this is their fate or destiny.

This is a view that stems from the highest level of government — President Xi Jinping — down through to the poorest ranks of the country’s 1.357 billion population.

“According to China’s world view, it was a respected, peaceful, powerful global actor,” said Dr Varrall. “This is how things were, should be, and will be. They believe it’s just a matter of time before they take back that role.”

When Dr Varrall was in China a few years ago, she even saw a Chinese citizen wearing shoes with the words ‘Diaoyu Islands is the people of China’ printed on them.

Dr Varrall saw someone wearing these shoes in China just a few years back. Photo credit: Richard Garratt.Source:Supplied

Why does this matter? Because this, she says, is a symbol of just how widespread these views are in China.

It’s not just the government elite who believe their country has this inherent right to power. It’s a view shared by everyone, from President Xi Jinping down to hairdressers and taxi drivers.

In other words, the country wants the rest of the world to see it as a global leader — a desire so strong that the country will refuse to back down, at any cost, until this is achieved.

“China’s actions in the South China Sea are reflecting this resumption of the natural order. They’re not changing or threatening the order; they’re resuming what it should have been all along. This is critical to the Communist Party’s legitimacy, and maintaining their power.”

“Not doing anything is not negotiable,” she adds. “They can’t let it go. They can’t not do anything.”

CHINA SEES ITSELF AS THE ‘FATHER’ OF ASIA

Dr Varrall says China sees itself as the “father figure” of the disputed region. Where the western world sees a flat model in which each country equally has or ‘earns’ power, China sees itself as a sort of central patriarch.

“If you’re the father figure, the centre of this circle, you’re expected to protect and look after the others, and the others in turn are expected to show a certain amount of deference and respect to you,” she says.

China believes it’s in the “natural order of things” that it should own the South China Sea, viewing itself as the ‘father’ of the other countries in the region.Source:AFP

This explains why China is so vehement about hitting back at what it sees as outside interference in the disputed area. It believes other countries in the region inherently need to show it ‘respect’.

In 2013, for example, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi described the emerging superpower, and the other countries fighting over the South China Sea, as a ‘big family’.

“China and the ASEAN countries are adjacent neighbours and are like a big family,” he said. “The reason why relations are so intimate is because China has always pursued a good neighbourly and friendly foreign policy, and has been willing to be good neighbours, friends, and partners with ASEAN.

“Furthermore, the foundation of China’s foreign policy lies in developing countries. No matter how developed and strong China becomes in the future, it will always safeguard the rights and interests of developing countries, including those within ASEAN.”

CHINA VIEWS ITSELF AS THE VICTIM

Dr Varrall said China perceives itself as a global victim, dating back to the Opium Wars of the 1800s.

In China, the whole period is referred to as the “Century of Humiliation”, and the government is determined to resolve it.

“If you think back to the 1800s, this was a huge shock to the Chinese psyche,” said Dr Varrall.

“They thought they were the centre of the world. They thought they were infallible. They thought they were the height of civilisation. But they were defeated by the very insignificant little nobodies they were receiving tribute from before. The people they looked down on were calling the shots, and it plunged them into a huge psychological crisis.”

You won’t see Pikachu on China’s prime time television any time soon.Source:News Corp Australia

This narrative is something that’s drilled into every facet of Chinese life — both through education and socialisation.

The government emphasises that China has to be strong and unified against all foreign incursions — no matter how big or small.

Japanese cartoons aren’t allowed to be broadcast on television during prime time. More significantly, though, it explains why they’re so touchy when it comes to foreign involvement in the South China Sea.

CHINA DOESN’T BELIEVE IT ACTS AGGRESSIVELY

Despite all this, China doesn’t see itself as disruptive or a force of wrongdoing.

“China understands it’s being inherently peaceful,” said Dr Varrall. “In its own narrative, the country has never been expansionist. It’s not like that.”

Instead, this is exactly how they view the United States and Japan.

In 2014, President Xi Jinping described the country as “a peace-loving nation”. He claimed the country has a 5000-year history of “cherishing peace”.

“The pursuit of peace, amity and harmony is an integral part of the Chinese character which runs deep in the blood of the Chinese people,” he said.

“The pursuit of peaceful development represents the peace-loving cultural tradition of the Chinese nation over the past several thousand years, a tradition that we have inherited and carried forward.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping doesn’t see his country as disruptive, or as anything other than a ‘peace-loving nation’.Source:Getty Images

This view is extremely prominent in the country, and is shared by everyone from the government to the lowest-ranking workers.

Why is all this important? Because if policymakers can understand the way China operates, they can adjust their responses accordingly.

For example, Dr Varrall argues that an aggressive stance from the US will only encourage China further. It believes actions by the US and all of its allies - including Australia - are part of a wider plan to keep the emerging superpower as weak as possible.

Because China views the world so differently to the west, she says we run the risk of implementing policies that may be “needlessly counterproductive”, or spark a war where it could be avoided.

In other words, perhaps aggression and routine threats aren’t the only answer.