Beijing appears set on a peaceful path as it continues to grow
By Peh Shing Huei, China Bureau Chief 05 February 2010
China doesn’t seem so nice any more. After a year in which the world hailed Beijing for its decisive measures to end the Great Recession, international opinion in the past two months has soured faster than you can say ‘Google’.
Despite its efforts to be portrayed as the good guy in Copenhagen, China left Denmark last December with global headlines casting it as the baddie stonewalling a climate change deal.
Its spoiler role was reprised last month, when it blocked further sanctions on Iran over the country’s nuclear ambitions. Some analysts say that China has displaced Russia as the main ‘protector’ of Iran in the United Nations Security Council.
Then there was that hullabaloo over Google’s threat to withdraw from China because of alleged cyber attacks and censorship. Let’s face it, it is obvious which way most people would lean towards in a tussle between the global search engine and an authoritarian regime.
Beijing’s winter of public relations flubs continued over the weekend when it came out strongly in protest over the US$6.4 billion (S$9 billion) US arms sale to Taiwan.
Its rapid-fire reaction included raising the spectre of economic sanctions against US companies involved in the weapons deal. The Washington Post spoke for many American watchers when it described seeing ‘a new triumphalist attitude from Beijing’.
The Europeans are worried too. In a recent article for the Centre for European Reform, its director Charles Grant argued that China had become ‘a much pricklier partner’ in the past year.
There seems little doubt that China has indeed become more assertive. To use the arms-sale spat as an example, Beijing has for the first time publicly announced sanctions on US companies. This is a significant shift from its response to previous US weapons sales to Taiwan. As recently as October 2008, when then-US President George W. Bush announced an arms package for Taiwan, China suspended only military exchanges.
Chinese observers told The Straits Times that the Chinese government had placed economic restrictions on American firms in the past, but did so quietly. Evidently, a post-financial crisis Beijing now feels confident enough to raise the stakes publicly in a head-to-head challenge to the world’s sole superpower.
Such self-confidence, bordering on hubris perhaps, is inevitable in a country that is sitting on foreign reserves of US$2 trillion and has just emerged from a global recession with an 8.7 per cent growth rate. If Beijing had a timetable for its rise to the top among the league of nations, the 2008 to 2009 economic crunch seems to have shortened it, considering how China powered ahead despite the crisis, while mature developed economies languished.
China’s confidence also keeps getting repeatedly boosted as the country keeps chalking up ‘world’s largest, biggest and fastest’ titles on a monthly basis. It now has the world’s largest auto market, the world’s fastest trains and soon, the world’s second-biggest economy. Everything points to its early arrival as a superpower, joining the US in that league. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that this emerging giant is putting its foot down more forcefully and frequently.
As the International Herald Tribune observed last month: ‘Think of the headiest moments of US expansion - the Gilded Age (in the late 19th century) or the Roaring Twenties - to get some idea of Chinese swagger and possibility.’
A more assertive stance is to be expected of rising powers in international relations. Few countries make their way to the top without flexing their muscles occasionally and parlaying their strength into concrete benefits for themselves and their allies. A key concern for the world is whether it will go beyond that and feel compelled to challenge the status quo and overhaul the world order, as Germany and Japan did in the early 20th century.
On this score, it is not difficult to understand the unease many feel towards China. It remains an authoritarian state - and one marked increasingly by a nationalistic bent. The fear is that the People’s Republic’s rise will not be the peaceful path it pledged to take a few years ago.
Yet, to be fair, there is little to suggest thus far that China will head in that direction. Bluster, yes. Bully, perhaps not.
Its reaction to the arms sale is instructive in this respect. While Beijing has been more muscular than on previous occasions, one would be hard pressed to say that it has gone overboard.
Scholars here describe the US-China tension as mere passing dark clouds, with most of Beijing’s countermoves designed primarily for domestic consumption rather than for an international audience.
China has to show its people that it is doing something. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), having branded itself in the last six decades as the defender of the Chinese people from further foreign humiliation, must live up to its reputation or risk being seen as weak. And that could be a potentially fatal misstep for a regime whose continued rule rests more on its perceived strength than the respect of its people.
Sino-US expert Jin Canrong from Renmin University said that it is important to frame the CCP’s actions on issues like the arms sales to Taiwan against a backdrop of increasing domestic pressures, including from the nearly 400-million strong vocal online community.
In short, the Chinese government wants to appear strong to its 1.3 billion people. But it has no intention of thrashing its ties with Washington or upsetting the present global apple cart.
It may be the spoiler in some events, but this is a country that still very much wants to be a part of the game. Its active participation in multilateral meetings such as the G-20 and Asean Plus Three shows it prefers to be in rather than out.
The world can be certain that China’s rise will be prickly. There is no avoiding that. But it does not look like China is abandoning the peaceful nature of its ascension - not yet at least.
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A more assertive China won’t rock the boat
Beijing appears set on a peaceful path as it continues to grow
By Peh Shing Huei, China Bureau Chief
05 February 2010
China doesn’t seem so nice any more. After a year in which the world hailed Beijing for its decisive measures to end the Great Recession, international opinion in the past two months has soured faster than you can say ‘Google’.
Despite its efforts to be portrayed as the good guy in Copenhagen, China left Denmark last December with global headlines casting it as the baddie stonewalling a climate change deal.
Its spoiler role was reprised last month, when it blocked further sanctions on Iran over the country’s nuclear ambitions. Some analysts say that China has displaced Russia as the main ‘protector’ of Iran in the United Nations Security Council.
Then there was that hullabaloo over Google’s threat to withdraw from China because of alleged cyber attacks and censorship. Let’s face it, it is obvious which way most people would lean towards in a tussle between the global search engine and an authoritarian regime.
Beijing’s winter of public relations flubs continued over the weekend when it came out strongly in protest over the US$6.4 billion (S$9 billion) US arms sale to Taiwan.
Its rapid-fire reaction included raising the spectre of economic sanctions against US companies involved in the weapons deal. The Washington Post spoke for many American watchers when it described seeing ‘a new triumphalist attitude from Beijing’.
The Europeans are worried too. In a recent article for the Centre for European Reform, its director Charles Grant argued that China had become ‘a much pricklier partner’ in the past year.
There seems little doubt that China has indeed become more assertive. To use the arms-sale spat as an example, Beijing has for the first time publicly announced sanctions on US companies. This is a significant shift from its response to previous US weapons sales to Taiwan. As recently as October 2008, when then-US President George W. Bush announced an arms package for Taiwan, China suspended only military exchanges.
Chinese observers told The Straits Times that the Chinese government had placed economic restrictions on American firms in the past, but did so quietly. Evidently, a post-financial crisis Beijing now feels confident enough to raise the stakes publicly in a head-to-head challenge to the world’s sole superpower.
Such self-confidence, bordering on hubris perhaps, is inevitable in a country that is sitting on foreign reserves of US$2 trillion and has just emerged from a global recession with an 8.7 per cent growth rate. If Beijing had a timetable for its rise to the top among the league of nations, the 2008 to 2009 economic crunch seems to have shortened it, considering how China powered ahead despite the crisis, while mature developed economies languished.
China’s confidence also keeps getting repeatedly boosted as the country keeps chalking up ‘world’s largest, biggest and fastest’ titles on a monthly basis. It now has the world’s largest auto market, the world’s fastest trains and soon, the world’s second-biggest economy. Everything points to its early arrival as a superpower, joining the US in that league. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that this emerging giant is putting its foot down more forcefully and frequently.
As the International Herald Tribune observed last month: ‘Think of the headiest moments of US expansion - the Gilded Age (in the late 19th century) or the Roaring Twenties - to get some idea of Chinese swagger and possibility.’
A more assertive stance is to be expected of rising powers in international relations. Few countries make their way to the top without flexing their muscles occasionally and parlaying their strength into concrete benefits for themselves and their allies. A key concern for the world is whether it will go beyond that and feel compelled to challenge the status quo and overhaul the world order, as Germany and Japan did in the early 20th century.
On this score, it is not difficult to understand the unease many feel towards China. It remains an authoritarian state - and one marked increasingly by a nationalistic bent. The fear is that the People’s Republic’s rise will not be the peaceful path it pledged to take a few years ago.
Yet, to be fair, there is little to suggest thus far that China will head in that direction. Bluster, yes. Bully, perhaps not.
Its reaction to the arms sale is instructive in this respect. While Beijing has been more muscular than on previous occasions, one would be hard pressed to say that it has gone overboard.
Scholars here describe the US-China tension as mere passing dark clouds, with most of Beijing’s countermoves designed primarily for domestic consumption rather than for an international audience.
China has to show its people that it is doing something. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), having branded itself in the last six decades as the defender of the Chinese people from further foreign humiliation, must live up to its reputation or risk being seen as weak. And that could be a potentially fatal misstep for a regime whose continued rule rests more on its perceived strength than the respect of its people.
Sino-US expert Jin Canrong from Renmin University said that it is important to frame the CCP’s actions on issues like the arms sales to Taiwan against a backdrop of increasing domestic pressures, including from the nearly 400-million strong vocal online community.
In short, the Chinese government wants to appear strong to its 1.3 billion people. But it has no intention of thrashing its ties with Washington or upsetting the present global apple cart.
It may be the spoiler in some events, but this is a country that still very much wants to be a part of the game. Its active participation in multilateral meetings such as the G-20 and Asean Plus Three shows it prefers to be in rather than out.
The world can be certain that China’s rise will be prickly. There is no avoiding that. But it does not look like China is abandoning the peaceful nature of its ascension - not yet at least.
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