Opinion / Forum Digests
Foraging for strategic cooperation
By wchao37 ( (bbs.chinadaily.com.cn))
Updated: 2005-11-14 11:48
It is true that China's rise provides the first real break in modern
times for the world's havenots to redress their grievances in dignified
international forums without having to feel that they are second-class
citizens whose miseries are unworthy of the world's attention.
Even without looking into a crystal ball, we can already discern a clear
silhouette pattern of a new world order -- that the 21st century is going
to be drastically different from the 20th mainly because of the
burgeoning influence of the Old Country.
It was no accident that the American-Spanish War occurred as it did in
1898 -- four years after the First Sino-Japanese War as a result of which
the Japanese militarists were emboldened to continue on the road of world
conquest by using the Korean Peninsula as a springboard.
China's defeat in that war led to the string of invasions of Asian
islands on her periphery. Japan wrestled Taiwan Province from Qing China
one year later and the U.S. seized the Philippines from the Spaniards
three years after that.
The only difference in the conditions between the two periods of
1894-1937 and 1945-2005 was that in the first period, China was a
maladroit, fumbling giant while in the second, she began to startle
friends and foes alike by rapidly metamorphosing into a mature, confident
power in her own right.
This paradigm shift makes the current power-play by her ill-wishers
unlikely to bear fruit.
After the 1898 Spanish-American war in the Philippines, America's slogan
was to "exterminate all insurgents over the age of 10," showing that
"might makes right" was an acceptable mode of behavior at the time and
humane treatment of native peoples was the exception rather than the rule.
With a similar imperial mindset buttressed by a much meaner streak of
sadism, the Japanese committed countless hideous war atrocities now
whitewashed by the likes of Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe and Taro Aso in
action if not in words.
As of today, it is sad but true that the Japanese and Americans are
conniving with one another -- each with its own ulterior motive and
prioritized agenda -- to impede the rise of China by attempting to
constrain China's maritime activities within the confines of the East
China Sea with a eastern limit defined by the First Island Chain of
Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan and the Philippine Islands..
The militarists who are direct descendants of war criminals from the
previous two Sino-Japanese wars are itching to provoke China into a third
war through adopting a warlike stance in the dispute over the oil
deposits in the continental shelf of the East China Sea. Their two 2+2
meetings so far this year show that they are actively mobilizing their
combined resources towards that end.
That's why so many countries are now flocking under the Chinese banner in
Asia, Africa and Latin America as can be seen during the flurry of
diplomatic forays in the past two years by China's leaders.
Southeast Asian countries did not subscribe to or share Rumsfeld's
ostentatious allegation of a "China threat" during the Defense Minister's
visit to Singapore in early 2005. On the contrary, they do recognize that
without China acting as the countervailing bulwark for world peace, their
own future prospects for independence don't look so bright.
China's political ideology emphasizing a humanitarian approach for
solving the world's problems, empowered by her traditional penchant for
building wealth through the diligence of her people instead of through
military conquests of foreign lands, is well appreciated by many amongst
the world's educated elite in all fields.
This can be seen in the warm welcome their representatives had given Hu's
speech in the UN in which he emphasized that China is pioneering a better
way to help the world's poorer nations through forgiving their loans and
training for them tens of thousands of experts to improve their
management capabilities. It is of course much more demonstrative of one's
goodwill to teach a man to fish than to merely nand him a bucket of fish.
In time, these efforts will all bear fruit for the Old country. The
Chinese nation is well aware of its responsibility to as well as its
special position in the world and understand very well that it will not
thrive by jealously guarding its treasure cove of experience in bettering
the lives of its people.
We must to the best of our ability share such constructive experience
with poorer nations and build a harmonious world based on mutual respect
and empathetic understanding of the problems faced by the majority of the
world's peoples.
Only in this way can we offer them a viable alternative to their
predicament in which predatory regimes persist in the present platforms
of international commercial relations, as is evidenced by repeated
failure of developed nations to meaningfully reduce subsidies for their
own agricultural products.
To be sure, our nation's political capital is not earned through
masterminding back-stabbing intrigues aimed at hurting other nations
while enriching ourselves. Ensuring a win-win situation in any commercial
foray should forever be the guiding principle in our international
relationships.
It is through offering sincere assistance and cooperation to nations
regardless of their size, wealth, and cultural or religious
idiosyncrasies that we can truly build a new world order best suited to
the survival of our species.
The speeches given in receptions during the thirty-five foreign trips
taken by China's President during the past two years offer the best
testimonial evidence of the above analysis.
The above content represents the view of the author only.
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