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Ties with US will
serve China well
By Paul Lin 林保華
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has requested to meet US President Barack
Obama in Los Angeles during his first foreign tour. The two leaders will surely
have much to discuss.
China has a number of pressing political and economic issues to address at the
moment, not least foreign relations, for now is possibly China’s most isolated
time since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power.
During a visit to Pakistan late last month, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強)
issued a joint statement with his “iron brother” and “all-weather friend,” and
Xinhua news agency had to recall its original reports on Li’s statements about
continued cooperation against “terrorism, separatism and extremism” and exclude
it from its news reports.
Since the Tiananmen Square Massacre of June 4, 1989, China has consistently
attempted to leverage Russia when trying to guard against the kind of “peaceful
evolution” — the hope that despotic regimes might gradually develop democracy,
freedom and prosperity by means other than violent revolution — that the US
would ideally like to see happen.
It was for this reason Beijing finally settled a dispute over the 1.56 million
square kilometers of territory along the Chinese-Russian border it claimed
Tsarist Russia had unfairly annexed as part of one of the unequal treaties
forced upon the Manchu Qing imperial government in the 19th century.
Russia was Xi’s first destination after becoming president in March.
This should have been a major political coup for Russian President Vladimir
Putin, but the Russian media had other things in mind. It had become fixated
with the potential meeting of the two first ladies, as Xi was to be accompanied
by his wife, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛). However, this became a one-woman show, as
Putin’s wife, Lyudmila Putina, failed to make an appearance for the entire
duration of the visit.
Soon after Xi’s departure, Putin played host to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe.
The reason for Putin’s Janus maneuver was surely his unease at the consistent
territorial demands China is making of its neighboring countries. Siberia, after
all, is already home to many Chinese immigrants. Other neighboring states, less
powerful than Russia, are even more unsettled by China’s increasingly aggressive
attitude. The invocation of the phrase “since antiquity” seems sufficient for
China to make territorial demands of other states, and this is backed up with
military menace.
It is no wonder these neighboring states welcome the US’ “return to Asia.”
All Xi needs do to ameliorate this situation is to show goodwill to the US, and
the general feeling is that Xi will, indeed, show respect for US as the superior
power, and maybe even do it some favors. The problem is the considerable
influence the elite “princelings” set has in the Chinese military.
Dizzy with the success of China’s recent rise, they are pushing for military
expansionism, and hold that anyone objecting to this policy is a traitor to the
Chinese.
Is all this goodwill on Xi’s part one-way, or is he looking for something in
return?
If China is serious about promoting peaceful foreign relations and creating
conditions conducive to reform, the US will certainly be willing to help. If,
however, if he is doing this in exchange for a break-up of the US-Japan
alliance, he has his work cut out for him.
Whatever the case may be, the fact that Xi is attempting to foster good
relations with the US does, at the very least, conform to the historical
strategy of cultivating good relations with distant states, while being hostile
to those nearer home.
First used in highest antiquity in China, it is a method the Han Chinese have
used in invading other countries and expanding their territories from their
original home in the Central Plains in the lower reaches of the Yellow River to
the current extent of China’s borders.
The Chinese bitterly denounce the incursions into their territories by Western
powers in the 19th century, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the Han Chinese
have obliterated and annexed countless bordering “barbarian” states over the
course of a history of expansionism spanning many millennia. From what we see
today, little has changed in this regard.
Late Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) was well aware of the strategy of
befriending distant states and attacking neighboring ones, but given the
persuasive influence the Soviet Union had on the victory of the Chinese
Communists over the Nationalists he was initially obliged to side unreservedly
with the Soviet Union against the US, and to see it as the main enemy.
Indeed, he was even willing to concede territory in the interests of maintaining
the international anti-US united front with other communist countries.
This was a situation that was to hold all the way until the early 1970s with a
change to the befriending distant states policy signaled by China’s
rapprochement with the US, a policy continued by late Chinese leader Deng
Xiaoping (鄧小平).
Tiananmen was a watershed moment, as the Chinese placed responsibility for the
pro-democracy movement at the feet of the US, and the US once again became the
enemy.
The princelings, mindful of conserving their political power, recoil at the very
idea of universal values, and have a love-hate relationship with the US.
Nevertheless, favorable relations with Washington will serve China’s needs well,
and if Beijing wants to use the befriending different states policy to restore,
and perhaps even surpass, the glory of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, China’s
neighboring countries are in for a rough ride.
This is especially true of Japan. After all, there is a theory that many
Japanese are descendants of Xu Fu (徐福) — whom legend has it landed in Japan two
millennia ago on a quest for the elixir of immortality — and his entourage,
meaning that they could be said to be, “since antiquity,” Chinese.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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