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2 The hard facts on 'soft
power' By Axel Berkofsky
"China has not started any wars lately,"
Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman wrote in
February, pointing to Beijing's competitive
advantage over the United States, whose Iraq
misadventure is making sure that Washington's
international image deteriorates on a daily basis.
Not having invaded other countries is
admittedly not a bad point of departure for a
country that has made a "peaceful rise", the
"democratization of international relations" and
the establishment
of a
"harmonious international society" the mantra of
its regional, global and foreign-policy
strategies.
Back in the real world, we
might not have seen all the small print and
details on China's foreign, economic and
energy-security policy agenda, argues Hugo
Restall, editor of the Far Eastern Economic
Review, in the magazine's latest edition.
"The West now needs to face the
possibility that is has welcomed a Trojan horse
into the international community," he writes,
suspecting that we still know relatively little
about Beijing's "real" foreign-policy goals,
except the obvious: "China is ready to
re-establish primacy in Asia," Restall writes.
While analysts and China-watchers confirm
that the world might be in for one or other
Chinese foreign- or security-policy surprise in
the years ahead, Beijing's policymakers on the
other hand seem to have it all worked out.
Whereas the United States and the European
Union mainly react to international developments
and crises these days, China's political leaders
are planning on shaping world events in as many
areas and continents as possible.
Indeed,
there is a deadline for almost everything on
Beijing's foreign, economic and energy-security
policy agenda, and the list of long-term plans
outlining policies and strategies is growing.
Driven by a growing appetite and thirst
for energy and backed by an economy growing at 11%
per year, China's leaders are planning to double
trade with Russia and Africa by 2010, fully
implement a free-trade agreement with the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations by 2012,
take a lead establishing the so-called East Asian
Community by 2020, and so on.
Believe it
or not (and admittedly many don't), China's
political leaders are surprisingly transparent and
up-front about their global political and economic
ambitions and seem to care very little about
international criticism accusing Beijing of
conducting "value-free" economic and energy
diplomacy toward energy-rich dictatorships in
Central Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa.
Washington consensus vs Beijing
consensus Like it or not (and again many,
including the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund, don't), offering
no-strings-attached financial aid and economic
assistance to Africa and to Southeast, South and
Central Asia has become a central part of China's
foreign and trade policies.
China's
economic development model, coined the "Beijing
consensus" by Joshua Cooper Ramo of the Foreign
Policy Center in 2004, is unlike Western economic
development models in that it does not link
economic and financial aid to preconditions such
as good governance, democracy, transparency, rule
of law, respect for human rights and other
"annoying" issues to dictatorships around the
globe. In other words, the exact opposite of the
so-called "Washington consensus" applied by the
World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Not surprisingly, Africa's and Central
Asia's dictatorships and autocratic regimes
welcome the arrival of Chinese-style "soft power"
and economic assistance as an alternative to the
European and US versions of both.
However,
Chinese soft power has realistically very little
to do with the original "soft power" concept
neo-liberal Joseph Nye introduced in 1990.
Instead, China's policy approach toward Africa
pretty much looks like good old power politics -
securing energy and profits at the expense of
other countries that are unable to offer China oil
or other commodities.
Beijing of course is
having none of this and argues that the expansion
of its relations with Africa is "mutually
beneficial": China provides economic and financial
assistance, it builds roads, hospitals and
airports, and Africa sells oil and other
commodities. A win-win situation, Beijing
maintains.
Besides, Beijing's parrot-style
political rhetoric goes, China is implementing its
global policies by applying the so-called
"principle of non-interference", ie, a strategy of
not bothering African and Central Asian
dictatorships with Western-style
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