China-bashing is a blind man's
game By David Gosset
For the global village, China's renewal is
a source of economic growth, a factor of stability
and an invitation to explore new ideas. In fact,
through countless material or intellectual Silk
Roads, an unprecedented intensity of exchanges
between China and the world is already taking the
global system to another level. Businesses,
governments' priorities and academic institutions
have been transformed by this complex but
promising process.
However, some fail to
grasp the big picture, and for them, China's
re-emergence generates anxiety. This explains
partly why nervousness is a recurring element of
the Sino-Western relationship. In the midst of a
phase of tension, one has to draw
the attention to what
really matters and to show the ways which can lead
to a more serene climate.
Recently, China
and the overseas Chinese had to respond to various
forms of attack. Those, mainly in the West, whose
aim was to damage China's reputation and to
disrupt the preparation of the Beijing Olympics
are now largely discredited and relatively
marginalized. They wanted to weaken China, they
gave her an occasion to show her solidity, her
resolve and sense of responsibility.
Unfortunately, they have created a
situation where too much mistrust, resentment and
confusion remain. This takes the energies away
from what should be Washington, Brussels and
Beijing's strategic goal: a cooperative and
constructive Sino-Western relationship, keystone
of the 21st century global order. Clarity, measure
and purpose can help dissipate the clouds.
Negative comments on the Chinese world
often reflect Western ignorance of a different
context, its globally positive socio-economic
transformation - including in Tibet and in
Xinjiang - and, for some of its parts, its
modernity. And, when a CNN commentator calls the
Chinese "goons and thugs" and says that the
products manufactured in China are "junk", or when
the new mayor of London writes that "Chinese
cultural influence is virtually nil, and unlikely
to increase", ignorance becomes foolishness.
But the Western "China-bashing" is also
highly counterproductive. Anti-Chinese rhetoric or
behaviors can only generate anti-Western attitudes
within China. While Beijing and the West need to
join forces to solve the immediate environmental,
political and economic problems threatening global
equilibrium, irresponsible activists and
politicians are taking the risk to ignite new
sterile antagonisms. There would be no winner in
such a confrontational configuration.
Western officials have also to realize
that by their harsh, accusatory and unfair
criticisms, they reinforce China's most
conservative forces. The Chinese reformers working
for the deepening of Deng Xiaoping's "Reform and
Opening-up" need constructive and subtle
international partners, not arrogant foreign
demagogues manipulating issues for their own
domestic and short-term political gains.
Moreover, and over the longer term,
inaccurate reports or insulting remarks by Western
commentators undermine the West's intellectual and
moral credibility. It is the emulation between
rich and nuanced analyses, and not new forms of
opposition between dogmatic statements, which can
enrich the debate.
What can be done to
overcome the current difficulties facing the
Sino-Western relationship? Several elements have
to be considered. Some are recommendations that
can have almost immediate effects, some are
principles for the foundation of a cooperative
future between China and the West.
Obviously, the Beijing Olympics are
attracting the world's attention but one has to
put this sporting event in its proper place.
Despite all the excitement and passion about the
2008 Games, one should keep in mind that they are
a very small chapter of what is arguably the most
significant story of our time, China's
renaissance. By putting the Games in perspective
all the parties can more easily stay within the
limits of reason, the main parameter of a strong
Sino-Western relationship.
One can not
expect China, the US and the European Union to
agree on everything, and one should be ready to
accept differences and even tensions between the
three poles. If properly managed, tensions do not
have to lead to conflicts, but can conduct to
adjustments and improvement.
Some in
Washington and Brussels have not yet fully
realized that China is a mature and sophisticated
sovereign entity able to discern and defend its
best interests. Excessive paternalism or a mere
superiority complex can even lead to the
assumption that one can dictate its policies to
China. During the 19th and the first half of the
20th century, a declining Chinese world yielded to
foreign imperial ambitions. The leadership of the
post-1949 China will not replay this episode of
humiliation. In the 21st century, Brussels and
Washington can formulate advice or suggestions on
issues connected with the Chinese world, but
certainly not unilaterally impose their views on
China. Beijing and the West, as co-architects of
the world order, have to learn to co-decide.
Through dialogue and negotiation, they can reach
this goal.
In March, riots in Tibet
legitimately caused concern. Everything has to be
done to avoid the repetition of such tragic
events. However, problems in Tibet are China's
internal affairs - the Dalai Lama is not asking
for Tibet's independence. A constructive way to
help Tibet's modernization would be for Western
companies to invest in the autonomous region
(Corporate Social Responsibility should not be
only the object of academic discussions in
business schools), and for Western institutions to
conceive, in coordination with the Chinese
authorities, genuine cooperation projects (modest
but concrete actions are more effective than
grandiloquent speeches and spectacular
communication). But Chinese and Western efforts to
bring development in Tibet will have to be
articulated with the adaptation of a Buddhist
society to the changes induced by socio-economic
modernization.
Media have, among other
things, the responsibility to introduce China's
transformation to the Western world. Journalists
have to be open to the Chinese world's significant
developments. Often they fail to do that. The
relatively limited coverage of the new dynamics
between Beijing and Taipei is a good illustration
of this incomplete reporting. On March 22, Ma
Ying-Jeou was elected president of Taiwan. A
rapprochement between Beijing and Taipei followed.
On April 12, China’s President Hu Jintao met
Taiwanese Vice President-elect Vincent Siew in
Boao, on Hainan island. On April 29, Lien Chan,
the ruling Kuomintang party's honorary chairman,
met with Hu Jintao in Beijing. These encounters
pave the way for the intensification of the
economic links between Taiwan and the continent
and boost Greater China's dynamism. Western
populations deserve to be adequately informed on
changes of this importance.
The current
French administration did choose to lead the
protest against what it framed as China's
crackdown in Tibet. In March, Bernard Kouchner,
the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, declared
that the European Union should consider the idea
of boycotting the opening ceremony of the Olympic
Games. It was a mistake. In general, this French
government did not follow what Hubert Vedrine,
former French Minister for Foreign Affairs,
recommended in his Report for the French President
on France and Globalization (September 2007).
"More modesty on this point [human rights] would
more conform with the reality and would not weaken
our concrete efforts to support human rights."
In July, Paris will take over the rotating
presidency of the European Union. This presidency
has to serve the vision of a positive
triangulation between Brussels, Washington and
Beijing. In November 2007, French President
Nicolas Sarkozy said to the Chinese news agency,
Xinhua: "My ambition is to make 2008 a great
Euro-Chinese year." This is a laudable project
that has to be implemented.
China will, of
course, greatly determine the quality of the
Sino-Western relationship. Under current
circumstances, Chinese society should remember
that tranquil confidence is a very effective tool
to neutralize all kind of provocative agitations.
The Chinese people have also to know that there
are large segments of the West that welcome
China's renaissance and comprehend its
contribution to the world.
In August,
Beijing, and also Qingdao, Tianjin, Shanghai,
Shenyang, Qinhuangdao and Hong Kong, will organize
what could be one of the most successful Summer
Games. They will manage to do so not because the
Chinese people will be forced to stage a
propagandistic display but because they will take
great pride and pleasure in contributing to the
success of a global event. Those who are still
calling for the boycott of a part, or even the
totality, of such an event are only making a
demonstration of their ignorance or
shortsightedness.
The Games of the 29th
Olympiad, and in two years, the Shanghai World
Expo, are two events that illustrate a more
fundamental reality: China's renaissance offers to
the world as much as the world brings to China.
Sterile and bitter confrontation will not stop
creative Sino-Western synergy.
David Gosset is
director of the Academia Sinica Europaea at China
Europe International Business School, Shanghai,
and founder of the Euro-China Forum. In September
2008, the 7th Euro-China Forum will take place in
Kiev, Ukraine. The opinions expressed in this
article neither engage the Academia Sinica
Europaea nor the Euro-China Forum.
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