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China: Fear and Loathing in East Asia
From the Wall Street Journal. Given complete. A nice summary of how China is putting its foot in it all around the neighborhood. HONG KONG -- A scene here last month was humorous and telling about why China is rapidly losing the public relations war in Asia. It was Australia Day, and the local, Beijing-appointed administration had sent out one of its leading lights to make a toast at the annual consulate bash. He beamed at the gathered guests and, searching for something to add to his prepared remarks, uttered rather infelicitously, "Hong Kong and Australia have much in common. You are a young country and are free, and we . . ." It was at that point that some of us started to look around embarrassedly. And we what, exactly? For a people who constantly go around recalling "5,000 years of continuous history," boasting about being a "young country" seemed a tad out of place. As for free . . . The Hong Kong government official, who himself had paused, found a way out (somewhat) by admitting that, yes, Hong Kong was "part of the People's Republic of China", but the city itself was "quite young and free." He searched around the room, and, as if pleading to the pack of assembled Aussies, added once more, "those of you who work here know that we are quite free." Yes, despite interference from Beijing, Hong Kong has retained many of its freedoms, as well as the rule of law and an efficient civil service, all bequeathed by Britain. But the urgency to put distance between the city and the motherland was palpable, and noteworthy. When one of China's own representatives, albeit from the semi-detached capitalist outpost of Hong Kong, seeks to play down the association with the mainland, there's something amiss. It's clear to impartial observers that China is having difficulties with the rest of the region at the moment. Not only is the Chinese "model" failing to attract many imitators -- youths from Sumatra to Hokkaido are still wearing jeans and Yankee caps, as are indeed their counterparts in China -- diplomatically China is actually repelling many of its neighbors. That Southeast Asians -- above all the Vietnamese and the Indonesians -- would regard China's rise with a weary [I think he meant wary] eye is to be expected. Vietnam has historically feared domination by its former overseer. Indonesia has always suspected that China would use the large and successful ethnic Chinese community as a fifth column. Singapore is leery, too. But in the past few months China has managed to alienate its Northeastern neighbors as well. Even South Korea -- where the fascination with things Chinese was growing apace with economic dependency -- has been put off by a series of mishandled events. Chinese security goons raided and broke up a press conference in Beijing by a group of South Korean parliamentarians last month. Later, brushing aside a plea from Seoul, China sent back to North Korea a poor, 72-year-old South Korean POW from the 1950-53 war who had managed to escape after decades in the gulag. And, of course, China's claim that a chunk of North Korea is historically Chinese has not gone down well at all. Some South Korean intellectuals are beginning to ponder how salutary China's rise is for the long-term health of the Korean nation. As for Taiwan, China's drumbeat of intemperate comments against the democratic island it claims as its own could well be pushing the population further into a separate identity. Of late the threats have reached such a crescendo that they are starting to spook the entire region. And now China's other northeastern neighbor, Japan, has been drawn in. Late last year, Japanese warships chased a Chinese submarine willfully violating Japanese waters. Invading territorial waters is hardly a way to win friends. Last Sunday, China went into near apoplexy when Tokyo added its voice to that of the U.S. in expressing concern about China's constant reminders that it could attack Taiwan any day. The actual wording of the U.S.-Japanese declaration itself was mild, logical and -- given China's saber-rattling -- entirely appropriate. The joint U.S.-Japanese statement was issued after a meeting between Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld and their Japanese counterparts, Nobutaka Machimura and Yoshinori Ohno. The 16-point document, dealing with issues from Afghanistan and Iraq to North Korea and Russia, made but the briefest of references to Taiwan. In fact, all it said was that U.S.-Japan "common strategic objectives" included the desire to "encourage the peaceful resolution of issues concerning the Taiwan Strait through dialogue." That innocuous statement of the obvious became the top item on China's state-owned Xinhua news agency, newspapers and TV news. Foreign Minister Kong Quan denounced it with predictable vehemence: "The Chinese government and people firmly oppose the U.S.-Japan statement on the Taiwan issue, which concerns China's sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security." The China Daily's editorialists went even further, calling the U.S.-Japanese statement "an irresponsible and reckless move that will have grave consequences." Such hyperbole is revealing. China often sounds much more like North Korea than the sober world power it insists it is becoming. The reason for that is obvious, and goes back to why our Hong Kong official suddenly felt so squeamish: China, like North Korea, remains a dictatorship. Of course, China is much more advanced on the path to freedom than the prison state on its border. Economic development pays political dividends, but even now nobody in China is likely to openly ridicule China Daily's editorials or openly criticize the government's anti-Taiwan rants. Public debate helps fashion a moderate foreign policy in most countries, but even internal debate in China is still extremely limited. China insists on going slowly with its political reforms. Some people say it isn't moving at all. It should know that the result of this reluctance is to be out of step with the world. Not even great powers can afford that. Mr. Gonzälez is editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal's editorial page. Posted by: trailing wife 2005-02-28 |
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