China's power, Europe's weakness
Beijing (AsiaNews) The arrival of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Europe (tomorrow in Italy) comes about in a framework completely different than those of the past. When former Chinese leaders traveled abroad then used to want to demonstrated their countries breaking off from its Maoist past or boast about the billion dollar deals they had just signed.
In the May 2 issue of the New York Times, Thomas Friedman urges the world to pray for China's stability, whose economy is driven by the world's only steadily running engine. Across the planet, all the other major economies are performing poorly are at least shaky. And China is pleased as punch because of its unique status as booming economic power.
In Italy, Europe and across the globe, Chinese are courted everywhere, hoping to get a small slice of China's 400 billon dollars in foreign investments and currency reserves. And the Chinese are amazed, too, yet fearful about such changes of fortune. Such changes represent a Copernican revolution with respect to the past, when China begged for aid and Western investment.
China's new economic status is also a reflection of politics. China is still a stable force for Central Asia, caught in a whirl of fundamentalist winds, and for Southeast Asia, where Islamic fundamentalism is a real force in the Philippines and Indonesia and has recently gained ground in Thailand as well.
Regarding the touchy issue of Taiwan, China has reversed its position. This is the island, whose government is headed by Chen Shuibian, which is attempting to strain relations with the mainland by pushing for constitutional reforms and wanting to declare formal independence from China. The United States, however, is putting pressure Taiwan to stay calm and not cause waves of irritation across the strait of water separting the two.
Lastly, there is North Korea: while the American government is involved in an ever more violent and costly war in Iraq, China is making efforts to convince Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arms progam; the United States would find itself with yet another boiling kettle to deal with with Chinese mediation. Beijing is helping to do this slowly and peacefully, and at no extra cost to the Americans. Such destabilizing forces, if fully erupting, would soon spread to South Korea and Japan.
China's new status makes it extremely strong. And for this very reason, international public opinion tends to overlook Hong Kong's problems. Hong Kong's main problem now is that it will not be able to directly elect its "Chief Executive" (president) as hoped for by 2007. In a different day and age, such an announcement by Beijing would have sparked a chorus of protests around the globe. Today, however, one sees hardly a ripple in the waters of international political debate. This is China's power and will be embodied by Prime Minister Wen when arrives in Italy tomorrow, as a leader of one of the world's major forces, capable of attracting foreign investors and influencing global stability.
Europe, however, lacks a strategy and a complex policy toward China. It is basically non-existent in the Old World and various individual Eurpean countries. However, in America there is a strong policy toward China, and it is growing in popularity. It is detailed policy which bears in mind the various facets of reality in China and which influence American's own internal affairs. In Italy, such complex relations between different countries and their governments are simplified, while the challenges China now poses to global economics require a deep moral examination and honest evaluation of our current industrial system. This is an Italian or European problem, not a Chinese one.
The same applies to the issue of human rights. The problem is that commercial institutions, even legal ones, say that China must do its best to keep on top of industrial development, but do not make any fuss about why Mr. X or Mr. Y is arrested. When one begins discussing human rights, talk never ends: first there is the arrest of three dissidents, but as you protest and they are released, another four new ones are thrown into prison. This doesn't mean we should not ask for the release of Mr. X or Mr. Y. The issue is much deeper and complicated than this and we can't even begin to imagine what it means while remaining on the surface of the problem as if it was only about a few random bad persons or criminals in jail and not about the relations and tensions of citizens with their civilization and social maxims.
.png)
