Monday 20 November 2017
"Making China Great Again" - on the Trump visit to China, from TorontotheBetter's correspondent in Shanghai
Here's our November 2017 report from Shanghai.
It is
probably a shame to begin a blog about the People's Republic of China – and its
booming economic and cultural megalopolis Shanghai – with a piece on Trump. The
objective of this series will primarily be to explore the practical meaning of
“socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Is it a meaningful name for a
particular kind of political economy? How is life evolving in the urban centres
of the earth's most populous country? What are the priorities of Chinese
municipalities? What exactly is the State up to, economically speaking? What
are China's green initiatives? How about the sharing economy? And how loud are
workers' voices in a land where, theoretically at least, the ruling party still
governs in their name and interest? Or, what matters most, soccer or
basketball? And then there's education...
Yet Trump was just here. He's so
hard to avoid.
And it is instructive to consider
the manner in which the Chinese leadership greeted him in these days of
unremitting, blistering attacks upon the real estate mogul/reality
showman/president. For Trump's reception in Beijing, plus all the official and
semi-official writing that attended it, tells us something about how the cupola
of the Communist Party sees China's place in the world.
A review of the press (and I mean
the English-language versions; my Mandarin is in the beginner stages and may,
in a reading sense, never develop much further) would suggest that China is
entirely unaware that the U.S. chief is a laughing stock, derided and despised
by so many at home and abroad. Chinese
media can be quite sharp in their criticism of American postures on this or
that matter, including new missile systems in South Korea, Pyongyang's
behaviour and Washington's line on, say, Iran. But there are no barbs at Trump
the fool, the narcissistic personality, the buffoon. A recent piece I read on
heightened tensions between the USA and North Korea clearly blamed Washington
for this state of affairs. But he who crafted – or at least uttered – the
war-mongering words Beijing finds so unhelpful to a resolution of difficulties
on the Korean peninsula wasn't even mentioned. Donald the mouth gets a pass in
China.
Of course, politically aware and
not-so-politically minded Chinese know a fair bit about the real human being/politician. Admittedly I have not
conducted or read a poll. But I teach at a public secondary school in Shanghai;
some of my Chinese colleagues roll their eyes at his mention. My older students
laugh at Trump tales. But who doesn't? The regime, Washington's 'superpower'
rival, is utterly straight-faced about him and if General Secretary Xi smiles,
it is in welcome. People's Daily referred to the State visit as
“unprecedented with great significance.” What, beyond a reminder of the
ordinary customs of diplomatic politesse, does this tell us?
Part of that answer can be drawn
from another essay that recently appeared in the press, in this case Global
Times. It was a not-too-long commemorative analysis of the 1917 Russian
Revolution and encapsulated, in my view, the Chinese Party leadership's most
optimistic sense of its own role in history. Xi and associates regard
themselves as the true inheritors of Bolshevik power. As distinct from the Soviet leadership, whose
mandate crumbled with Mikhail Gorbachev, the Chinese leadership not only knows
where it comes from but where it is going, in the words of the article's
author. It has a plan for the system founded in 1917. The Russians went doddery
and stumbled off the path.
That path, or plan, is being laid
out in a world considerably different, however, from the world of Kennedy,
Khrushchev, Reagan, Brezhnev and other Cold Warriors. Our globe is an
interdependent one, with massive economic investment running both ways, shared
ecological challenges and crises, and of course a common interest in the
avoidance of nuclear war. In this sense, I think, the Chinese are squarely in
the tradition of Gorbachev. Although contemptuous of his abandonment of
political power, which consigned the Soviet Communists to near irrelevance,
they have taken much of MG's teaching on peace and shared values seriously.
'Contradictions' and disputes between the two systems were given too much
weight during the Cold War, CCP theorists say. We need each other. We hold your
debt. We need your investment to help China develop further. It isn't primarily
a matter of one side against another; we agree it is best if North Korea
does not have nuclear weapons and will collaborate, in a reasonable fashion,
toward that end. In sum, China and the world are better off if the relationship
between Beijing and Washington is reasonably harmonious.
So why mock Trump? Why annoy him?
Don't take the bait and snarl when the Hairman blames China for American
economic problems or says Xi could solve the Korean nuclear issue over a
weekend, if only he wanted to. Whatever
else he is, Donald sits in the Oval Office. That's all that concerns the
Chinese. We must work with him and even excuse tweets and rude speeches. After
all, that illness of not measuring one's words before they are uttered is not a
disease we suffer from. We have a plan.
That plan includes recognizing real
rivalries, but not accentuating them. China's armed forces will continue to be
modernized. Xi will tell his officers to ensure soldiers are prepared for
combat. Beijing will be tough on themes like Taiwanese and Tibetan
independence. China will stay tough on regional security issues. When Western
capitals tell China to adopt liberal democracy with a multiparty system, Xi
will politely tell them to go to hell... and might do worse to Chinese who make
that case in a persistent fashion. But generally, interdependence determines
foreign policy. So China will work with Mr. Trump.
But... The party leadership believes
it has an alternative to advance, one that grows from the soil of 1917. Against
the American model it presents one in which the State unreservedly and without
apology drives the economy through massive investment and public enterprise. A
model which rejects budgetary austerity as a policy panacea, as it does
“nationalist,” protectionist strategies. One which, its designers maintain,
promises political stability and gradually deepening “socialist democracy”
without the perceived chaos of the Western party system. It includes a promise
of extensive investment in, and infrastructural links to, other developing
countries on a “win-win” basis (See One Belt One Road). To
poverty-choked Africa, for example, China says, We won't preach. We'll just
build railways and plants. And both sides will come out ahead. And you can copy
our system if you want. Here it has lifted over half a billion souls out of
destitution.
A kind of global struggle persists.
But today the Chinese prefer one played mainly with 'soft power'. So Donald,
and whomever enters the White House after the Trumps stumble out, is welcome in
Beijing. The systems and their respective populations need each other. And one
day, think some, all will figure out that “socialism with Chinese
characteristics,” which isn't really an expression of nationalism after all, is
best for the species as a whole.
Labels: Donald Trump, Making China Great Again
# posted by Taodhg @ 7:32 pm 
