TO OUTSMART BEIJING, JAPAN MUST FIRST UNDERSTAND WHAT CHINA REALLY IS ABOUT
How will the world move forward from here—with peace and order under a continued “Pax Americana,” or with turmoil and uncertainly under a “Pax Sinica,” President Xi Jinping’s dream of “the great revival of the Chinese race”? This was the large question behind the scenes at the start of the US-China summit in Washington on September 25.
Flying first into Seattle on September 23 en route to the summit, Xi quickly announced with much fanfare the purchase of 300 Boeing aircraft, stressing that China will further buy American products worth US$ 10 trillion in the next five years. Xi knows his Chinese dream will not materialize with military might alone; it is mandatory for Beijing to secure US economic cooperation and support. But, will Xi’s promises to bring immediate economic benefits to the US really help to abate mounting American criticism of China?
In his talks with Obama, Xi failed to bridge the large gap that currently exists between the two nations over many issues. How can we begin to understand China today under Xi, intractable, persistently insisting on the correctness of its own positions despite criticism from all quarters?
There are certain things a nation “must not do” under the universal principles of democracy and international law, such as threatening the sovereignty of any nation, no matter how small. Such norms are obvious to Japan and many Western nations, but plainly are not so to China. The reclamation work that China has been forging ahead with around a number of reefs in the South China Sea is clearly a blatant act of territorial aggression. But the reaction from Xi, when the US side referred to the Chinese operation, was one of defiance. From Xi’s remarks we must perceive some important elements that make China what it is today.
During a joint news conference on September 25, Obama told the press he and his guest had “candid discussions on the East and South China Seas” in an effort to safeguard the “freedom of navigation and overflight and to unimpeded commerce,” stressing that he conveyed to Xi “our significant concerns over land reclamation, construction, and the militarization of disputed areas.” To this, Xi simply responded: “China is committed to the path of peaceful development and a foreign policy characterized by good relations and partnership with our neighbors.”
Military Defense Requirements
“The islands in the South China Sea have been China’s territory since ancient times,” he bluntly added. “…relevant construction activities that China is undertaking in the Nansha Islands (Chinese for the Spratlys) do not target or impact any country, and China does not intend to pursue militarization.”
No other nations support such a claim. In point of fact, Admiral Sun Jiaguo, Deputy Chief of the PLA General Staff Department, remarked in Singapore last May that the purpose of the reclamation was to meet China’s military defense requirements, confirming China’s intent.
In the discussions of cyber espionage, China was equally defiant, resorting to false allegations. At the summit, Obama freshly reminded Xi that the US has serious concerns about growing cyber threats to American companies and American citizens, indicating to Xi that “it has to stop.” Obama warned that the US will take every step to protect its citizens, its corporations, and its national interests.
In preliminary consultations between the two governments preceding the summit, according to the Washington Post, the US side had indicated it was planning to impose “a package of unprecedented sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals who have benefited from their government’s cyber theft of valuable US trade secrets.”
Despite such a stern warning, which was reportedly repeated at the summit, Xi only responded during the news conference as follows: “China and the United States are two major cyber countries and we should strengthen dialogue and cooperation.” Xi spoke as though it were someone else’s business, although the US and China agreed that neither government would support or conduct cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property.
Based on the norms of the international community, any nation would think twice about making such nonchalant assertions regarding its own violation of the territorial land and seas of sovereign neighbors and its frequent cyber-attacks against other nations. However, one fails to sense any sign of such sentiment from the Chinese. In fact, the Chinese posture in this regard has much in common with Vladimir Putin’s toward the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, which he maintains was perfectly legitimate. If one is to argue that, under a one-party dictatorship like Russia’s, international law, treaties, or other codes of conduct can be easily violated, it may be so. But although China itself is also ruled by the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party, there is definitely a much more intricate historical background to China pursuing the “Chinese dream” and the “great revival of the Chinese nation.”
China’s repeated overtures urging the US to accept and enhance a new type of major nation relations are clearly aimed at changing the existing values on a global scale. Isn’t China, which has built up its strength over the years, looking forward to seeing Pax Sinica supersede Pax Americana and expecting the entire world to follow Chinese norms and values, spreading “peace and order” around the world as Beijing dictates? The Chinese may likely be thinking that they more than deserve the right to see it happen, now that China has become a big power.
Why are the Chinese this insolent? Professor Satoshi Hirano, a noted scholar of Chinese studies at Tokyo University, contends in his Anti-Japanism: History of Chinese Civilization (Chikuma Shobo, Tokyo: 2014) that the Chinese mindset is almost impossible to comprehend from the Japanese standpoint; one must adopt the Chinese way of thinking in order to understand their frame of mind.
Needed: “Wisdom Power” to Outwit the Chinese
Explaining the evolution and expansion of Chinese civilization, Prof. Hirano points out that the Chinese have always believed their “superior” civilization brought teachings full of benefits to peripheral races with lesser civilizations devoid of their own writing systems. “What occupies the core of the Chinese view of the world even today is an unwavering trust and confidence in this historical perspective.”
In a civilization in which the Chinese are convinced of their superiority to other races, racial discrimination has become common place, notes Hirano. He further notes that the Chinese civilization allows the people “to solemnly recognize the iron-clad rule that the stronger always rule over the weak” and “to endeavor to co-exist among themselves on that basis.” He says further: “Real harmony will permeate society and eternal peace and co-existence will be realized as those ranking above others show virtue and compassion as the pecking order is strictly honored.”
Convinced that their civilization is the highest in the world, the Chinese go a step further and expect neighboring nations to single-mindedly learn from and emulate their civilization in order to raise their own standards and be accepted as better and more civilized members of the Chinese sphere of influence. Here, getting the “barbarians” around China to emulate the superior Chinese virtues without qualification is greatly encouraged. Because this represents the “substance of the magnanimity of the Chinese civilization” as far as they are concerned, notes Hirano, the Chinese find it difficult to understand why nations like Japan and the US get genuinely angry over the Chinese theft of intellectual property and copy rights.
The grudges modern China holds against the world are attributable to the destruction of Chinese order and values by Western civilization, as well as Japan having stood above China in terms of successfully adopting Western systems, Western values, and Western ways. How should Japan deal with its recalcitrant neighbor bound by this unbearable sense of humiliation? Hirano warns that, if Japan attempts to conduct diplomacy with China by positioning itself as a superior civilization trying to preach Japanese values and virtues, it will in effect be playing the same game as China. Hirano’s conclusion: Japan must instead use the wisdom and power of universal values to make its case with China. In any event, clearly Japan will not be able to find its way forward without a thorough understanding of the Chinese mind.
(Translated from “Renaissance Japan” column no. 764 in the October 8, 2015 issue of The Weekly Shincho)