China's scruples cost it Libyan
advantage By Jian Junbo
SHANGHAI - China's rapid transition from a
developing into a developed country is still
limiting its role in international affairs, as
seen in its sitting on the fence over the Libya
issue.
China has tried to keep close ties
with the West, while at the same time continuing
its friendship with developing countries. But by
taking no side, China may in the end please
neither.
In the beginning, what happened
in Libya seemed similar to the "Jasmine"
revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Social turmoil
in these countries and others like Bahrain and
Yemen is largely due
to long-standing social
conflicts, such as political corruption, uneven
distribution of wealth, and high unemployment
rates.
But there is a big difference
between the situation in Libya and what happened
in Tunisia and Egypt, where the presidents left
after failing to ease the social turmoil.
Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has refused to
hand over power to his people or the rebel groups,
and has used brutal force in trying to crack down
on the rebels. This has given the West an excuse
to intervene with its no-fly zone.
Yet the
West fights for its own interests rather than for
so-called humanitarian reasons. The West has does
nothing over the rulers of Bahrain, Yemen and
Syria, who have also killed non-armed civilians in
crackdowns on protests.
In order to
legitimize the armed interference in Libya's
domestic affairs, the West took advantage of the
United Nations (UN) Security Council, which issued
resolution 1973 regarding intervention.
As
a permanent member of the Security Council, China
abstained from voting on the resolution, which
indicated that China permitted the West to
interfere in Libya, yet it did not want to offend
either the West or the developed world, or the
League of Arab States and the African Union, which
largely belong to the developing world.
It
seems Beijing doesn't like Tripoli's ruler much
either. Although China has considerable economic
interests in Libya, which can be seen from the
evacuation of over 30,000 Chinese from Libya after
the civil strife broke out, China's investment in
Libya is not as large as in other African
countries such as Angola and Zambia.
At
the same time, Beijing also doesn't want to appear
as too obedient to Western leaders, particularly
as China doesn't have huge interests in Libya
compared with other places.
But it should
be highlighted that resolution 1973 was mostly
aimed at ending the "violence and all attacks
against, and abuses of, civilians" and
establishing "a ban on all flights in the airspace
of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in order to help
protect civilians".
However, under the
name of the UN, the implementation of the
resolution by the US and European powers has
swiftly changed into an armed attack against the
Tripoli regime, with indirect support for the
rebel groups.
While France acts like a
pioneer, Germany is indifferent, and other
European powers like Britain and Italy follow. The
US just stands behind the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization.
Each country has its own
reasons for its stance on Libya. French President
Nicolas Sarkozy wants to show strength ahead of
his re-election campaign, and also wants to act as
an international leader.
Germany doesn't
want to get involved where it does not have to -
it has little interest and historical links with
Libya. Italy, as a former colonial ruler of Libya
- and a major oil importer from there - has to
deal with this crisis to safeguard its economic
interests and border security.
As a member
of the European Union (EU) and an ally of the US,
it's no surprise that Britain actively
participates in this attack, and the US as the
international hegemonic state has to promote the
venture to keep its so-called international
leadership in military and moral matters.
China is now against this Western-led
attack on Libya seeing it has changed from a
UN-sanctioned peacekeeping effort into a military
attack aimed at regime change.
Chinese
President Hu Jintao indirectly criticized the
West's handling of the Libya issue when he met
Sarkozy in Beijing at an official Group of 20
conference in Nanjing on March 31.
However, by not vetoing the UN resolution,
Beijing to some extent has already lost its moral
high ground with developing countries. And now it
seems Beijing realizes it has made a mistake and
is beginning to correct it, seeing the West's
actions as deviating from the UN's charter and the
original objective.
All the same, the
China-Europe partnership and Sino-US relations are
unlikely to be too hard hit by the Libya issue,
despite their differences. Libya is not a core
interest in their relations. On the contrary, they
have common interests - preventing Islamic
extremists from coming into power in Libya, which
has always had links with al-Qaeda and terrorism.
All the same, China has been embarrassed
in the international community by its stance - it
cannot balance its position between developing
countries and Western powers.
China's
abstention over resolution 1973 was an attempt to
at first please the West, although Beijing should
have known that Western troops would not strictly
abide by the resolution. Then when Western air
raids escalated, China began to seek a peaceful
approach.
This swing reflects China's
peculiar status in the international community as
a rising global power. On the one hand, in terms
of gross domestic product (GDP), China seems to be
a developed country since it only lags behind the
most powerful state - the US. Yet, on the other
hand, in terms of per capita GDP, China definitely
remains a developing country. This dual nature of
China's economic and political status puts Beijing
in a dilemma when dealing with international
affairs.
China has to keep close ties with
Western countries to achieve its modernization.
However, it also has to keep good relations with
developing countries because of its historical
friendship and its economic and political
interests in these countries. Moreover, China
still bears the historical burden of being the
leader of the so-called Third World and its sees
as its responsibility to continue its moral
leadership in developing countries.
However, taking no side in international
affairs may please no one in the end. In regard to
Libya, it may be better for China to take a side.
For example, China and the West have some common
interests in Libya. Both have businesses in this
country. Also, neither side wants to see Islamic
extremists rising to power in the region.
Thus, China could have acted more
proactively to work with the West to advance
common interests instead of widening conceptual
and practical differences. From this perspective,
China's absence in the international conference on
Libya is certainly not good news.
Dr
Jian Junbo is assistant professor of the
Institute of International Studies at Fudan
University, Shanghai, China.
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