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Updated Sunday, September 5, 2010 5:51 pm TWN, By William Choong , The Straits Times

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China needs to do more to counter skepticism over its rise

Major-General Luo Yuan, the deputy secretary-general of the Academy of Military Sciences, accused the U.S. of pushing its security boundary to the Yellow and South China seas. If this continued, he added, China would have to “hurt” the U.S. in return.

This disconnect between China's self-image and other countries' image of China has triggered concrete actions across the region.

Vietnam, once Washington's arch foe, hosted the super-carrier USS George Washington last month in a not-so-subtle signal directed at China. In a Defense White Paper last year, Australia called for a massive naval build-up — a move seen as a pre-emptive response to China's naval build-up. Recently, some newspaper reports suggested that Japan will increase its submarine fleet for the first time since 1976, to counter North Korea and China.

Does this mean, as one Chinese airforce officer argues, that regional countries are forming an “Asian Nato” against China? Not quite.

Gone is the 1990s debate, predominately in the U.S., about the “containment” of China. Today, Asian countries engage China in all kinds of fora, while at the same time keeping the powder dry. As the late British strategist Gerald Segal opined presciently in a 1996 article, “constrainment” — a mix of engagement and containment — is the way to go.

And is the U.S. angling for an “attack” on China, as Yang suggested after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for a multilateral approach to the South China Sea dispute? Again, not really.

The fact is that U.S. President Barack Obama is becoming a “Pacific president” deeply engaged in Asian affairs. Also, China's fierce rhetoric has led to growing skepticism — and perhaps coordinated action — among ASEAN countries. At a recent ASEAN Regional Forum meeting in Hanoi, 12 of the 27 countries participating — including the U.S. — spoke in favor of a new approach to the South China Sea. This prompted Yang to suspect some form of orchestration.

This state of affairs behooves Beijing to do three things. First, it should launch a fresh charm offensive and sign the Code of Conduct with ASEAN to formally enforce peaceful settlement of the South China Sea issue. A 2002 Declaration of Code of Conduct (DOC) was only voluntary and not legally binding. And as professor Shen Dingli, executive dean of Fudan University's Institute of International Studies, argues, China should abide by the 2002 DOC, and settle the issue at the International Court of Justice.

Lastly, China needs to at least recognize concerns voiced by some of its Asian neighbors about its military build-up, instead of burying such concerns under lofty rhetoric about China's “peaceful rise.” Beijing should explain in detail what the acquisitions of, say, nuclear-armed submarines, and even an aircraft carrier, are for.

Speaking in Hanoi recently, Yang asked rhetorically whether the expression of one's “core interests” was a “form of coercion.” The answer has to be “yes.” After all, international politics is all about perception and the actions taken thereof.

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Comments

September 5, 2010 johnlone@

Bravo! Commentator say it all...China need to back off. Peaceful rise is nonsense. China's core interests are another non-senses. China can not be trusted and every nation especially in ASEAN are natural to upgrade their navy to counter this barbarian threat.

September 6, 2010 dagstd@

Chinese military power is growing and it is only natural that China will use to exert influence in defense of her strategic national interests, just as any nation does, and as the U.S. (and Japan) have done in the past. The problem as I see (speaking as an American) is that China's leaders often use bombastic and highly threatening language when the U.S. or other nations act or speak in ways the Chinese do not like. Their choice of language may help bolster China's self-image, but it is decidedly unhelpful and only fosters suspicion of China's true motives and hidden intentions. China insists that its rise is "peaceful," but then, why such an expansion of its military? The other issue is much more problematic and nearly impossible to resolve and that is China's Communist government. Totalitarian governments are much more inclined to be expansionist and imperialistic in its foreign policy, unless there is a counterweight to such actions. If China became a truly democratic state once again, I think she and the U.S. and her other neighbors could solve their differences quite easily and the suspicions about Chinese intentions would diminish dramatically. This much we can all agree on: neither China nor the U.S. or her allies want open conflict. No one could truly win a war like that and everyone would be losers. China has made impressive strides economically and conflict with the West could destroy it all. I only hope that China, in spite of its totalitarian system of government, will behave responsibly and non-aggressively toward her neighbors and the U.S.. To do otherwise, would be to risk a miscalculation that could have dire consequences.