I read a column about China and the ruling Communist Pary authored by Robert
Novak, who routinely writes about political affairs. And the story is worth
being picked-up for forumites sharing:
The message from officials in this huge, shiny, booming Chinese capital is
that China's military buildup does not connote desire to kick the Americans out
of East Asia.
Their assertion is buttressed by the clear impression that
people here are interested in making money, not war.
Yet, that members of the U.S. Congress see China's Communist regime as a
threat is felt here to be endangering the relationship between the two
powers.
The Chinese position was laid out unequivocally for me by Assistant Foreign
Minister Guofeng Sheng, the highest official made available to me on my first
visit to China in 12 years: "China has no intention to restrict or limit United
States influence. We do not have the capability. Nor would we have such need [to
attain that capability]." He added: "We are not a threat to anybody."
But difficulty in Sino-American relations is no mere paranoia among hard-line
congressmen in Washington. Chinese officials and U.S. diplomats admit that the
love affair with America by ordinary Chinese ended more than a decade ago,
replaced by a worrisome anti-Americanism. The United States is not much better
loved in Beijing than it is in Paris.
On the surface it is difficult to see militarism here. The dusty old city I
encountered for the first time in 1978 is now a glittering giant of 11 million
dedicated to commerce.
Patriotic posters have been replaced by corporate
ads. Once omnipresent soldiers of the People's Liberation Army, nowhere to be
seen, are either demobilized or back in barracks.
Assistant Foreign Minister Sheng expressed exasperation at anybody imagining
that the Chinese military could crowd U.S. forces out of Asia. "We are not that
strong. There is not a military buildup," he told me, because Chinese spending
is at only one-eighth of the U.S. level.
Sources close to Communist leaders say they are not really that concerned
with nuclear weapons in North Korean hands but are aggressively engaging in the
six-power process to please the Americans.
The issue cited by Sheng and other Chinese officials most dangerous to
Sino-American amity is the Taiwan question. But sources say the regime actually
is not eager to incorporate Taiwan now so long as it does not move to
independence. With the Kuomintang party apparently poised to regain power in
Taiwan, the independence threat would be gone for now.
Bad blood was spawned in the streets in the early '90s when the U.S. Congress
opposed the 2000 Olympics for Beijing. The bombing of the Chinese embassy in
Belgrade during the Kosovo War was not regarded as an accident by either the
people or the authorities and is still talked about here. Displeasure with Iraq
followed these special irritants.
Beyond the streets, however, is one prominent Chinese businessman who feels
he was treated unfairly by U.S. politicians: Chengyu Fu, chairman of the China
National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC).
A little over 70 percent of CNOOC is owned by the state (the rest by private
investors). But Fu told me the Communist regime had nothing to do with his
decision to buy California-based Unocal oil company or his decision to back off
when a firestorm developed in Congress.
In CNOOC's gleaming Beijing office building, Fu said he thought the Unocal
deal would not only have benefited his shareholders but also fit the U.S. ideal
of unimpeded investment across national borders.
Instead, China was accused of trying to corner the international oil market.
"We thought we were doing a good thing," Fu told me. "I was naive. But this is
the world we live in."
CNOOC, he said, is a good global citizen. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf
Coast, the company's employees voluntarily contributed $100,000 for relief of
the victims, which was matched by the company for a total $200,000 contribution.
That unpublicized charity, he said, reflects a China that members of Congress
don't know about. "China has changed," he said. "Even the Communist Party has
changed. But the world does not know it."
The above content represents the view of the author
only.
