China Ascendant – Part III

EDMONTON: China’s reemergence as a great power has come a long way since Mao Zedong proclaimed in 1949 that “the Chinese people have stood up.” Today’s China is standing tall, and taking off: ranking third in the world economy, commanding a foreign cash reserve that has no rivals, attracting the largest amount of foreign investment and sending astronauts to circle the earth. Chinese leaders have pledged to the world that its rapid rise will be peaceful in nature, harmonious in treating its own citizens, and multilateral in dealing with other states. “One World, One Dream!” as China’s 2008 Olympic mantra, they reasoned, would be inspiring.

But in the past several weeks since protests in Tibet brought unwelcome spotlight on China it has become apparent we live in a world of many different dreams. Tibetan exile groups wanted to go home with their desired autonomous self-rule or outright independence; Western human-rights organizations want to scrutinize China’s human-rights records; many see the 2008 Beijing Olympics as an opportunity to force China to change in the direction of democratization; and others simply don’t think Beijing deserves to host the games in the first place. So when unrest broke out in Tibet and the surrounding regions, this dealt a heavy blow to the tale of China’s harmonious society. Banning foreign reporters from entering Tibet, Beijing claimed that its response to the riots was reasonable amidst widespread Western reporting that its crackdown was heavy-handed. And when China launched the unprecedented global torch relay for the summer games, pro-Tibetan groups and their supporters declared open season on China, seizing the moment to interrupt the procession at every corner and nearly every stop.

Violent scenes of protesters in Paris trying to seize the Olympic torch by attacking Jin Jing, a female Paralympics athlete in a wheelchair, sent shockwaves to China and Chinese communities around the world. The Chinese could not comprehend why so many French citizens, whom they hold in high regard, came out waving black flags and denouncing Beijing games as the “Genocide Olympics.” They were also outraged by some of the Western media’s reports on Tibet that included serious errors following the March 14 events in Lhasa, which turned into violent attacks by Tibetan rioters against non-Tibetans. With a strong sense that China and the Chinese people are being unfairly targeted, many Chinese, both at home and abroad, feel that national sovereignty is under attack and tend to link this with the country’s humiliation of foreign invasion in the 19th and 20th centuries. This is the major reason why overseas Chinese have held counter-demonstrations along the torch relay routes, often in tense confrontations with pro-Tibetan groups.

In contrast, the Chinese authorities have taken such sentiments as proof of widespread public support for their harsh words against the Dalai Lama and for their overall Tibetan policies. Beijing’s propaganda machine has waged a systemic attack against Western media, fanned nationalist sentiment that led to the boycott of French products, allowed limited pro-government demonstrations and wasted no time in propping up Jin Jing as the victim of a Western conspiracy that is designed to separate Tibet from China and to humiliate Chinese people in their long-anticipated Olympic coming-out party.

So, in this very year that Beijing is eager to showcase its peaceful rise to the world, the West is using the same occasion to hold Beijing accountable for its behavior commensurate with its growing world-power status. And the current confrontation over Tibet is as much about Tibet, human rights and the Olympics as it is about the rules of engagement in the international system, the rules developed in the West – human rights, press freedom and other norms of a modern society.

Yes, there is a dose of hypocrisy in all of this. Western politicians, NGOs and Hollywood celebrities must confront their own demons at home. The history of genocidal treatment of the aboriginal communities in North America and Australia, the ongoing war in Iraq, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, have severely eroded the moral authority of the West on human-rights issues. But that does not give Beijing any excuse for not coming up with solutions to its own human-rights problems that the world can live with. And for that purpose, the Chinese leadership must make the following policy changes.

First, Beijing must stop its degrading attacks against the Dalai Lama. The Chinese government’s denouncements will not diminish the Dalai Lama’s reputation as a well-respected religious leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner. The Communist Party boss of Tibet, Zhang Qingli, who labeled the Dalai Lama “a jackal in a monk’s robe,” should be immediately dismissed and his compulsory “patriotic campaigns” in Tibetan monasteries stopped. China’s leaders must realize that its Cultural Revolution–style indoctrination is more than a public-relations disaster. With an innovative set of new policies, they may have a chance to persuade Tibetans to live by their religious beliefs while respecting state sovereignty. But the Tibetan people, with their strong religious and cultural heritage, will never accept loyalty to the Chinese state at the expense of loyalty to their religious leader, the Dalai Lama.

Second, the Chinese propaganda machine must call off its attacks against foreign journalists and Western media. Beijing must be reminded of its promise for unrestricted access to all parts of China for foreign media leading up to the Olympics. If the Chinese government has nothing to hide, if it wants to stop “Western media distortion,” then open up Tibet for the world to see. With some 35,000 reporters about to descend on China to cover the Olympics, the Chinese people must welcome them with confidence and open arms, not with a xenophobic environment where hate messages against foreign journalists are allowed to freely flow in the state-controlled media.

Third, the Chinese leaders must reflect deeply on its Tibetan policies and make bold paradigm shifts in achieving its unfinished task of nation-building. Tibet has presented more than a challenge to China’s efforts to integrate itself into the international society. The key contradictions of the globalization process in modern history – sovereignty vs. self-determination, rapid industrialization vs. preserving the environment, state vs. religion, migration/urbanization vs. traditional life, commercialization vs. indigenous culture – are all reflected in the struggle for Tibet. It would be wise for Beijing to pursue a genuine dialogue with the Dalai Lama, not to save the summer Olympics but to save and secure Tibet in the greater Chinese multi-ethnic family. And for that purpose and in response to the Dalai Lama’s repeated call to support the Olympics, Beijing would win global applause if it could invite the Dalai Lama to the summer games.

For China to make any of these difficult but necessary moves requires bold vision and political courage on the part of the top Chinese leadership. It also demands that the Chinese people, both at home and abroad, move beyond passionate patriotism or narrow-minded nationalism. At this crucial historical juncture of ascending to superpower status, China needs to display a responsibility that does not depend on how others are judging it. Only if it pursues internationalism instead of nationalism will China live up to the world’s dreams.