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HU'S ON FIRST
Part 3: Clear vision for a
global role
Part 1: China restores pragmatism
Part 2: Long road to reform
Editor's note: This series is contributed by
a source who has been within the Chinese establishment
for a long time. It therefore reflects views of many
cadres on their current leadership.
BEIJING
- On international affairs, the fourth generation of
Chinese leadership under President Hu Jintao and Premier
Wen Jiabao has adopted a more transparent and positive
approach than the previous administration of president
Jiang Zemin. Hu largely outplays Jiang in casting off
ideological shackles, enabling the new administration to
deploy more pragmatic polices on foreign issues, such as
the North Korean crisis, ties with the Group of Eight
(G8) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), relations with the United States, Russia and
Japan, the South Asia issue and even affairs in the Hong
Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions.
Two decades ago, Deng Xiaoping set the keynote
of the nation's diplomacy as creating a beneficial
regional and international environment for domestic
economic construction as well as the reform and
opening-up policy.
After the collapse of the
Soviet Union and upheaval in Eastern Europe, Deng
adjusted China's foreign policies to neither standing
out nor seeking the limelight. It was a pragmatic
policy, pursuing favorable ends regardless of
principles, and also the best choice in the
then-turbulent international situation.
By the
late 1990s, however, the concept of so-called "diplomacy
among superpowers" surfaced and gradually became the
mainstream ideology. Under that, China started to try to
appear as a major player in many international affairs.
On many occasions, China tried to say "no" to others on
lots of solutions, but eventually succumbed to pressure.
The result was, of course, embarrassing. A good example
was China's role in the changes in Yugoslavia, a former
socialist country. Sharing the same ideology, China
remained a controversial liaison with then Yugoslav
president Slobodan Milosevic, who was eventually charged
with war crimes, and felt "fooled and betrayed" by
Russia as Moscow kept itself away from the trouble
waters. China's embassy in Belgrade was also bombed
"mistakenly" by US missiles. This is merely one of the
examples in which China was stuck in a swirl of
international politics.
Now, one year after the
16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP), Deng's pragmatic foreign policy is prevailing
again. Substantial progress has been made in ties with
the US, Japan, Russia and Europe. As to relations with
its neighboring nations, the reciprocal win-win policy
is promoted with feasible measures where promising
results have appeared.
Before the 16th Party
Congress, China held an onlooker's attitude over the
Korean Peninsula crisis. The issue of ideology was
believed to be the main reason behind China's strange
and indifferent behavior. But, after the Congress, China
quickly adjusted its policy and surprisingly adopted an
unprecedented yet active and responsible stance: it
initiated the six-party talks in Beijing and promised to
work further to bring North Korea back to the
negotiation table. In China's foreign policy, regional
security and peace outweighed ideology for the first
time, which gained global recognition together with
amazement.
In June, Hu Jintao was invited to the
G8 summit in France, a sign that China would no longer
regard the G8 as a "club for rich bourgeois". It also
showed that China would widen its scope into other
important international organizations besides the United
Nations. Unsatisfied with the role of a critic, China
would get involved more actively in establishment of a
new international political and economic order.
China's full cooperation with the United States
on issues of anti-terrorism and the North Korean nuclear
crisis has helped the country win lots of benefits in
regional security, bilateral trade, suppression of
Taiwan separatism, stabilizing Xinjiang and the like. As
to divergences such as revaluing its currency or dealing
with its trade surplus, China regards them as economic
issues only, instead of extending them to politics,
which could easily provoke domestic anti-US sentiments.
Recently newspapers in mainland China have
argued that the US is neither a foe nor a friend of
China, and meantime, US President George W Bush and
Secretary of State Collin Powell have reiterated that
the two nations are enjoying their most cooperative
relationship.
Meanwhile, Sino-Japanese ties have
reached a new crossroads. With the unveiling of the
secret behind Japanese long-term loans to China, both
government are pondering how to change their way of
thinking on historical rancor: Japan must get used to
the fact that China is getting stronger, while China
should respond to the Japanese desire of being treated
as a normal nation.
Russia was the first nation
that Hu Jintao visited after coming to power. But that
by no means indicates that the new administration has
made Sino-Russia relations the top priority of its
diplomacy; rather, it is Russian weapons and oil that
count. If the Kremlin failed to understand this, Mikhail
Kasyanov, its prime minister, might have been surprised
during his recent Beijing visit.
With the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 and gradual
abdication of China's central leaders who had studied in
the former USSR, political ties between China and Russia
are less close than before. They used to be comrades and
brothers in the socialist world, and then were almost
ready to go to war against each other. Now relations are
warming again. While ideological matters are being put
aside, the two big neighbors are thinking about
maintaining a normal relationship.
On
Sino-Indian relations, Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee's recent six-day visit to Beijing pushed
bilateral ties on to a normal track, marked by the
unprecedented joint military exercise last Friday.
China's pro-Indian poise displeased Pakistan, so Beijing
invited President General Pervez Musharraf for an
official visit.
China's relations with its
neighboring countries have been strengthened after a
series of diplomatic activities by Premier Wen Jiabao in
Bali and President Hu Jintao in Bangkok. They were there
for the Summit of 10+1 (ASEAN + China) and the APEC
(Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit respectively,
but they brought with them timely detailed policies and
measures of the new administration in improving and
strengthening the relationships with neighboring
countries. It shows that China will not ignore them,
despite its endeavor of approaching big nations, and
that China is trying its best to meet the expectations
of those small neighbors. China's rise always worries
them, and the new policies and measures help prevent
misunderstanding, which is beneficial for mutual
understanding and cooperation.
Issues regarding
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are domestic affairs, but it
is usually more convenient to treat them as foreign
affairs, since they often concern other nations.
To gain more support for next year's election,
leaders in Taiwan have put forward many political
policies that are highly sensitive to the mainland. They
intend to induce conflicts with the mainland and reap
sympathy. But we see neither whistling missiles nor
military exercises in the Taiwan Strait. The status not
only reveals the Hu-Wen administration's patience and
tolerance, but also its political wisdom and sincerity
for peace. Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party can no
longer count on complicating the cross-Strait issue to
win more votes.
Hong Kong's July 1 protest was
the first genuine test for the "one country, two
systems" policy. After the protest, the mainland
launched a series of measures to boost the special
administrative region's economy, instead of making an
inane response such as punishing the leaders behind the
demonstration. Any Hong Kong people who witnessed the
events of 1989 should realize that things have changed.
Chairman Mao Zedong said that the key problem of
our revolution was to find out who are our friends and
who are foes. In that light, China chose its friends on
the basis of ideology. Before US president Richard
Nixon's historic 1972 visit, China was firmly on the
side of the Soviet Union. Even though it drew closer to
the US and later confronted Russia, however, China at
that time did not abandon its practice of diplomacy on
the basis of ideology.
However, after the 16th
Party Congress, it is crystal clear that the pursuit of
the nation's interests, rather than ideology, has become
the prime consideration behind China's diplomacy. The
win-win diplomatic policy is therefore getting
increasing recognition by the new administration.
The challenge now is for ordinary Chinese people
to adapt to this new diplomatic thought, a policy of
neither deliberately creating foes nor chumming too
closely with anyone.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times
Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
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