China’s Manifest Destiny
Recent events have demonstrated a trend that has been sweeping across China since the Spy Plane Incident of 2001. China has finally, following the traumatic events of 2008, shaken off what little awe they may have had for foreigners. This truly is the end of the Western Age and the Dawn of the Chinese century.
For a few China Watchers, the Chinese century provided the possibility of a new, perhaps Third Way in world politics that would utilize soft power and multi-lateral discussions instead of hard power and unilateral decision making, exemplified by the late Bush Administration. Alas, the truth is that China will most likely behave as most superpowers have throughout history: arrogant and self-serving, drunk on this new power — Superpower.
Three things in particular are indicative of China’s increasing power, confidence and method in the years to come. The first is the sentencing of Liu Xiaobo, a co-architect of the Charter 08, published late last year as a plea to enlightened reason in the People’s Republic. I mentioned the constitution last year in my blog, as I happened across a link to the charter provided by "Perry Link". At the time, I thought that such a document could be a catalyst for a nationwide soul search at best, or internal Party discussions at least. Unfortunately, all that followed was the prompt arrest of Mr. Liu and now, a year later, his sentencing to 11 years in jail.
Human rights groups, literary figures and heads of state from across the globe are protesting Mr. Liu’s sentence, but China’s favorite spokeswoman Jiang Yu’s response that any protests are a "gross interference into China’s internal affairs" is not only expected, but this time final. There will be no soul searching in China now.
In a related case, an Englishman on death row in China has one more week to live, according to Chinese law. Although his family have repeatedly asked that Akmal Shaikh be considered mentally incompetent, up untill now the CHinese have been adamant about having respected his rights and, more importantly, about his having violated Chinese law. Any CHinese national caught with 4kg of heroin would be summarily shot in the head. If China does go through with the execution, the first such in more than 50 years, then there can be no doubt that the world has changed forever, from the perspective of the West.
The second is the reported behavior of the Chinese delegation to the Copenhagen talks on climate change. As reported in the Guardian, the Chinese effectively scuttled the talks. The Europeans reacted with indignation and began pointing fingers. China remains unperturbed. The PRC has extensive national security issues riding on any agreement concerning climate change. Just as the developed nations a century ago, China relies on dirty coal and basically zero enforcement of environmental regulations to keep the economy humming. If the economy stutters, so does China’s rise; if China’s rise stutters, so does the Party’s grip on power.
What should be blamed, if anything, in the failure of the Copenhagen talks on climate change to produce a lasting treaty is the naivete of the Western nations. Can anyone rightly blame China or India for scuttling talks that would effectively halt the onset of an Asian Century? Think back to Bush’s refusal to give weight to the Kyoto Protocol — is it any wonder that the next superpower takes lessons from the last?
The third "recent event" is reported on in detail by the Asia Times‘ MK Bhadrakumar: China’s unassailable power in Central Asia. In this article, China’s successes in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are attributed to "15 years of patient, painstaking diplomacy" that have finally reaped rewards in the form of increased energy security for an energy starved nation. The key here is that China’s energy security comes at the expense of Russia’s traditional dominance and America’s more recent foray into the Great Game. Most striking of all is the gross miscalculation by US strategists that Central Asian countries would be wary of China and feel safer striking deals with the US. Where they got this idea is beyond me: America and Russia have bombed Afghanistan into bits and pieces and the US is about to increase their troop presence to at least 30,000 and we are supposed to be a safer option than China?
What is more likely is the outbreak of a deeper, wider conflict in Central Asia as Obama’s War drags on into failure and China’s successes provoke a reactionary response from an embittered, partisan Congress.
For years Western thinkers have been predicting the coming collapse of China, and they can be forgiven such predictions given China’s domestic problems: shoddy products, massive corruption, life-threatening pollution, stifling oppression. But what they did not take into account is the power of nationalism. For the nationalist, all things are tolerable in the name of progress for the nation. This, above all things, is what has kept China’s drive for superpower status alive for so long: call it China’s Manifest Destiny.
A Long Time Coming
Since April Fool’s Day 2001, the Communist Party has actively cultivated its most potent weapon: people power. Over the years, as China’s economy grew and so did America’s problems at home and abroad, Chinese patriotic fervor slowly grew into a pillar of support for the government, in any form. I often heard criticism of the Party followed quickly by heartfelt support for the country, which by necessity included the Party.
Last year was the breakthrough year for China. The snowstorm followed quickly by protests in Tibet followed quickly by a devastating earthquake followed quickly by the Olympics was traumatic and emotional for all Chinese. The vital part of this story is, not only did China survive, but it flourished. The snowstorm barely put a dent in China’s travel plans, the Tibetans were put in their place, the whole world admired China’s response to the quake, and Chinese athletes won the most medals of any nation.
A few days ago, I sat with a respected engineer who has been working in China for more than 30 years and he lamented the recent reluctance of his Chinese partners and subordinates to listen to anything he had to say.
"Ever since the Western financial institutions collapsed, the Chinese don’t believe they have anything more to learn from us," he said. "This will come back and bite them in the future, because without an open door their economy will stagnate."
He also added that he is working on a project in China of which the likes have not been seen anywhere in the world: the biggest bridges, longest tunnels, fastest construction, and most money spent ever. The problem for him was not just that the work is being done too fast, with too much corruption, and with dubious materials and safety precautions, but that no one outside of China has any access to the work being done here.
And this is the rub: Chinese are taught (and believe) that until very recently, anything of worth was already being made here in China. They are taught that in the past, China was the greatest nation on earth and needed nothing from the West. Stories about the Dutch trade representative kowtowing 24 times just to be denied an audience are not just fodder for a weak nation, but reminders of a glorious past and hints at an even more glorious future.
And until recently, Western leaders tolerated this worldview because it had not yet arrived, but recent events show that China’s Manifest Destiny has indeed reached the other shore and the days when China waited in vain for an apology over the accidental downing of its plane are over.
Read more by Sascha Matuszak
- Business Over Bluster – November 10th, 2008
- A Win-Win Situation for China – October 28th, 2008
- The Security Blanket – August 5th, 2008
- The World Under Fire – July 31st, 2008
- The No-Fun Olympics – July 24th, 2008
FrankLau
December 26th, 2009 at 6:33 am
Mr. Matuszak does not see things clearly. Chinese patrioticsm was spurred by western media's lies about unrests and unjust reporting about events in China, this one included. Don't underestimate people who are billingual like most chinese are. They definitely see things more clearly than people living in a monoculture world, and they have three thousand years of recorded history to guide them.
As for western critic so far, most resort to useless nick picking of daily living pain and forget about the direction that leadership should provide for the human kind.
jojo
December 26th, 2009 at 11:35 am
"Alas, the truth is that China will most likely behave as most superpowers have throughout history: arrogant and self-serving, drunk on this new power — Superpower. "
FYI: Matuszak, Eric has you mixed up with kooks from reporting for pro-war sites. Name us,just one time in the past 300 years that China has acted like the Brits, French, Spanish,Germans, Isrealies Japanese,Russians and never forget the American monsters? Or at least killed it's own and blamed others to start massive killings.Go make my day!
omop
December 26th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
As William Shakespeare noted in a poem, "all the world is a stage …….and ALL men and women get an opportunity for a certain time period play a "part".
Mr. Matuszak seems to be imbued with the views of many
westerners" including incidentally by a Darwinian and incidentally even Karl Marx that ALL Asians a step below the socalled Western (wo)man.
The honorable and more human (?0) expressions are that China's Manifest Destiny will be as GOOD [sarcastically speaking or as onerous] as the preceding ones by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Englishmen, and americans
Hacklheber
December 26th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Well, yes. The World's Petri dish is taking on new hues, subject to the laws of economics and the pressure of politics (as well the vagaries of environmental conditions, which I suspect will take on greater prominence) but the future is, as always, obscure. The Area Commonly Called China is not a monolithic bloc of hegemonic power and interesting modifications, not least due to the internal struggles between the party and the military, may occur. But yes, the USA better fasten their seatbelts.
I, for one, welcome future spaceships lettered in hanzi.
Jay
December 26th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
It's trendy to call this the Chinese or Asian century. I think it will turn out to be an international century not dominated by any so called super power.
andy
December 26th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
It wasn't China that invaded Iraq. It isn't China that maintains an empire of military bases around the world. It wasn't China that launched an unprovoked 78 day bombing campaign against Serbia. It isn't China that gives Israel 3 billion dollars a year in "foreign aid". I could go on and on….
ZionismIsRacism
December 26th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Also, dont blame china for the failure at copenhagen, blame climategate. The failure at copenhagen to sacrifice our sovereignty and more wealth towards a total hoax known as Anthropogenic Global Warming, yeh so much warming going on thats why parts of the country are being hammered harder with snow than they have been in 50+ years. If china is to "blame" for the talks getting scuttled then GOOD. CO2 is not toxic and is the lifeblood of all our trees and plants, APW is a total joke and so is its so called leader al bore.
Andy
December 26th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
That would be the best thing.
conumishu
December 27th, 2009 at 4:53 am
True. The "manmade global warming" is an institutionalized lie. More defining of the moral fall of today politicians and scientists than anything else. The average Earth temperature is at least stable in the last 10 years, but there are surveys, violently rejected by the AGW inquisition that report the average temperature is dropping in the last 6-7 years. The infamous google click action could prove to be a good start for verifying the above.
Political ecology is such a disgusting tool for trying to delay upcomers to reach the riches table and herd the western sheeple into heavier taxation and submission to the bureacratic incompetent elite.
Will Scully
December 27th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Mr. Matuszak cops a provincial attitude, without any real facts to present, and many to be ignored. His article is more revealing of East Europe fears & tech lacunii – than of China. Ex. Against the E.U. Cop15 tricks (binding treaty favoring EU & tech status quo); & the US insidious project (spy on & penetrate everywhere – AKA "all your bases are ours"- principly for the hated Oil Dollar printing Hegemony) – China took dual action for real change: mid-Asia Gas imports to replace coal & Magnet-Driven vehicles to replace Fuel-Driven ones. These are logically correct measures – SELF-IMPOSED with no tiresome strings attached to blackmail others into compliance.
bink35
December 27th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Has this site been hijacked by the neocons or have I been redirected over to the NY Times, WSJ, Washington Post, CNN, FOX, CBS, NBC, etc.?
Here's are hint y'all: going to Perry Link who's made an entire career bashing China blows Matuszak's cover wide open.
Shame on anti-war (or should this be anti-war-except-when-it-comes-to-China.com?)
mildom
December 27th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
The jury is still out on China. We've had totalitarian regimes in the last century which appeared momentarily omnipotent but which eventually collapsed because of their inflexibility or rash, unchecked grandiose decisions. The last 400 years, over the long term, shows that the optimal system for economic growth, technologigical innovation and and intellectual development (the categories are mutually dependent) is a free society, with all its inefficiency, tumult and lack of organization. For centuries, China rode Confucian scholarship, only to find that it stunted development. China had no interest in exploring the world in the 15th century. It was flea infested, witch burning decendants of the survivors of the Great Plague that did so, and revolutionsized the world. Not the Chinese. They're still not leaders in innovation, and won't be so until they achieve a state of freedom which does not yet exist in that country. And all the polution, corruption and official oppression may stop them before they get there. I wouldn't bet the farm on their eventual supremacy.
paulBass
December 27th, 2009 at 7:40 am
tibet?
Jean Byoyard
December 27th, 2009 at 7:40 am
China was almost brought to her knees by opium.
MoT
December 27th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
I would put any rose colored glasses down immediately. That, in our recent life time, we haven't seen China act the same way as the so-called "western" powers doesn't mean they didn't want to. That's foolish. This is a nation that has killed off tens of millions of its own in the last century and countless millions through its wars in centuries past. There isn't a lick of difference between them and other empires. You have your ugly Americans and you can count on your ugly Chinese behaving as arrogant humans always do. It isn't about race or nationality it's something in the attitudinal DNA of all people. Nothing new. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future, that's even a Chinese curse, but I dislike and distrust any government. They're mobsters just like the ones I live with in this country/fiefdom.
MoT
December 27th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Interesting thought. I've had the ironic idea that maybe what we are seeing today is Chinas revenge on the west for that sad historical fact.
MoT
December 27th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
The Chinese aren't so stupid as to fall this this eco-claptrap. The past two years have seen some of the coldest weather ever recorded but that fact is "conveniently" ignored by the AGW superstitionalists.
MoT
December 27th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
I wouldn't call the bureaucrats "incompetent" because they know damn full well what they're doing. They're fricking geniuses! It's their doe eyed FOLLOWERS and enablers that are the true idiots.
bink35
December 27th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Matuszak seems to have a distorted view of both China and the U.S. Maybe these videos will help you and any others of us who think we HAVE ANY RIGHT WHATSOEVER to go around the world lecturing and hecturing about any other country's behavior. We ought to consider "leading" by example.
1) Obama and Empire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXL998q7skI
2) John Pilger – Freedom next time (indictment of professional journalism)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-uq7O1RqQQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipYIfUQqq3Q&fe… (same speech as above with different footage.)
3) John Pilger – Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the war on terror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aQE64G6-8g&fe…
4) John Pilger's documentary explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHj735t_knk&fe…
bink35
December 27th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
The totalitarian West seemed to do just fine economically. You may not have noticed but the countries they've bombed, installed brutal puppet regimes, and have military bases in to remind them that they better do as they're told (over 170 so far!) aren't allowed to forget!
What will be interesting to see is what a world in which a great power country does BUSINESS with other countries will look like. This is what China does – business.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/articl…
axe
December 27th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Arrogant? This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black! In truth, it is Matuszak who is arrogant. His attitude is that of a white colonial master who is resentlful of his declining position while the natives are starting to take over their own destiny.
Matuszak should read some of Paul Craig Robert's excellent articles on arrogant American attitudes.
Matuszak's low-quality and racist articles don't deserve a place on an excellent site like Antiwar.com. Get rid of this asshole and bring back Bevin Chu. Henry Liu is great, too.
Andy
December 27th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
China is no more of a threat to America then it is to Mexico. Its not like an armada of Chinese junks are going to sail 12,000 miles across the Pacific and attack Oregon. China is only a "threat" to American global hegemony. China will eventually force America out of Asia and the far east and Asian Pacific areas. The USA shouldn't be there in the first place. I can see no justifiable reason for the continuing stationing of American servicemen in South Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Guam, etc. It's good business for the military-industrial complex and its a good place to be sent for horny young men, but its not good for America. Not good at all.
Jeff
January 19th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
This is exactly how I feel. AW.COM is great in every way except hosting this guy . All he does is to tell people how he hates China and Chinese. His writings have no substance, just his feelings and half facts.