Doklam standoff: If China wants to be a great power, it needs to behave like one
The world over, China is famous for its fake products. Whatever the "original", China is sure to come up with a cheaper, if not so satisfactory, copy. But can this be extended to the realm of "news"? No. Fake news, sooner than later, is revealed to be what it is. Bogus. False.
This applies especially to China’s standoff with India at Doklam. For China is using its economic and military clout to take over this territory by building a road through it. To this end, it is belting out a barrage of fake news and views. But like its substandard, counterfeit products, no one believes Chinese propaganda either.
Propaganda
If the "Seven Deadly Sins" anti-India video put out by its inept, if overactive propaganda machinery is anything to go by, China is a racist and imperialist state, browbeating and threatening both friends and foes alike to achieve its ends. Who would want to endorse or imitate it? No wonder, few Chinese cultural products or trends have gained worldwide currency.
If Chinese food is an exception it is precisely because it is not politicised or ideologised. The state doesn’t interfere with it; that is why it succeeds. Why has China’s soft power failed miserably? The answer is simple: it usually manifests in the ugliest fashion. Like pulling out hundreds of unflattering articles from the Cambridge University Press published China Quarterly.
Given our eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with China over Doklam, is it any surprise that Chinese state-controlled media outlets have been spreading disinformation abroad as also creating an anti-India climate within China? Global Times in particular, which is under the control of People’s Daily, is the main culprit. A recent example is a story called “A slap in the face! Bhutan acknowledges that Doklam is a Chinese area.”
First appearing on the mobile version of the People’s Daily, the article is based on misreporting and mistranslating a PTI newsfeed. The only one, it turns out, who made the assertion in the headline was a Chinese official. Naturally! But this fact was conveniently omitted by Chinese media. Naturally! The article was republished by the Global Times, again state-run and known for its hardline stance.
If China is a great power, why doesn’t it behave like one? This is a question on every observer’s mind when they see the contradictory rhetoric emerging from Beijing. Think about the North Korean crisis. There’s Donald Trump on one side, threatening “fire and fury” on the “rogue” Pyongyang regime.
And there’s North Korea on the other side, formed in 1948 when the Korean peninsula was partitioned on the 38th parallel. North Korea had overrun the South; Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), the commander of the Allied force, which forced Japan’s surrender in World War II, then led the UN forces to push back the Communist invaders. An artificial boundary and demilitarised zone, totally sealed, complete with barbed wire fences armed forced massed on both side prevails.
Totalitarian
The “great leader”, Kim Il-sung, ruled North Korea with an iron fist from 1948 till 1994, followed by his son, Kim Jong-il. Now the latter’s son, “Supreme Leader” Marshal Kim Jong-un runs this sad, some would add starving, country. No doubt, it is a totalitarian regime, propped up by China. If China didn’t give it oil and food, it would fold in a few weeks. China benefits by a proxy state training its guns on its biggest rival, the United States.
North Korea is now a nuclear state. When it threatens to target Guam, a US territory, it is akin to China saying, “We can get you, America!” What is more, the subtle subtext says, “We are not responsible; North Korea is.” How convenient. Closer home, China has border disputes with most of its “neighbours” — Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines, and of course, Taiwan.
China is a great civilisation. Supremely pragmatic, the Chinese have survived the worst odds to become the world’s most populous country, soon the biggest economy too. We respect that. But China must live up to its own ideals if it is to win universal regard.
Subservience
What are these? Respect, discipline, and hard work, instead of domination, bullying, bad behaviour. All over the world, China is increasingly unpopular. It is perceived as selfish and brutish, pushing its own interests over those of its client and allied states. This defies the traditional wisdom according to both Confucian and Daoist principles, let alone Buddhism. If China does not adhere to the dharma of a great power, how can it hope to earn respect and credibility?
China and India should be the best of friends, being the world’s oldest surviving civilisations. Why can’t they live up to this ideal? It is because of one simple reason. China does not esteem India. It wants to intimidate us into submission and subservience.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this will prove impossible. Once China accepts India’s “peaceful rise”, a different equation between the two powers will become possible. It is in China’s best interests to maintain friendly and peaceful relations with India. President Xi Jinping must overrule his hawks who want to teach India a lesson.
If China wants to play the elder statesman, preaching moderation and rationality on the US-North Korea front, it cannot very well behave like a blundering tyrant in its standoff at Doklam. Be consistent, Big Brother — that’s what I would say to China. Let both sides withdraw from the conflict zone.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)