On 7 mai, 03:14, PaPaPeng <PaPaP...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> China-ba****ng is a blind man's game
> China's renaissance, arguably the most significant story of our time,
> offers to the world as much as the world brings to China. Yet some
> fail to grasp the big picture, and for them, China's re-emergence
> generates anxiety. The result is anti-Chinese rhetoric and behavior
> that can only generate anti-Western attitudes within China. Meanwhile
> Beijing and the West could join forces to solve global problems. -
> David Gosset (May 6, '08)
>
> China-ba****ng is a blind man's game
> By David Gosset
> May 7, 2008http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/JE07Ad02.html
>
> 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 relation****p. 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 Wa****ngton, Brussels and Beijing's strategic goal: a
> cooperative and constructive Sino-Western relation****p, 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-ba****ng" 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 re****ts 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 relation****p? 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 s****ting 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
> relation****p.
>
> 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 Wa****ngton 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 leader****p of the post-1949 China will not replay this
> episode of humiliation. In the 21st century, Brussels and Wa****ngton
> 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 (Cor****ate 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
> re****ting. On March 22, Ma Ying-Jeou was elected president of Taiwan.
> A rapprochement between Beijing and Taipei followed. On April 12,
> China=92s 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 im****tance.
>
> 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 Re****t 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 sup****t 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, Wa****ngton 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 relation****p. Under current cir***stances, 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.
China-ba****ng is the product of the bipartisan politics in the US. It
is engineered by those with political interests of their own and
mobilized through the people of the uneducated class in the US.
China-ba****ng is no envy of anyone who adores US multiparty politics
and is a shame on democracy.
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