AMU Asia Homeland Security Intelligence Opinion

First Lady Diplomacy in China

By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security

Michelle Obama’s visit to China may be more promising for US-China relations than any attempts of the Administration since attempts of closer ties at the “Annenberg Retreat” in California, June of last year. She toured the capital with Madam Peng Liyuan, wife of the current Chinese president. Mrs. Obama will also travel to Xi’an and Chengdu.

China likes these types of high-level, indirect, diplomacy settings. They allow a great deal of leeway and more room for mistakes, adjustments and recanting. It should not be the only way states interact, but for states like China, it is preferable.

The expectation is that they will pave the way for more concrete diplomacy in traditional settings and channels later through building personnel friendships. This is a further step than the Annenberg retreat, as it was still leader-to-leader in a more casual setting over the span of several days.

The Annenberg Retreat had been scheduled just weeks before the G8 summit and was hoped that cyberwarfare, cybertheft and Pacific tensions could be resolved in addition to economic opportunities at the summit. It looked very promising. Everyone was also full of smiles. Little progress was made. The issues are still on the table.

This new approach means sending in someone that has never been to China for any long period, does not speak Chinese and acts with the composure of a disarming guest. This someone is also the closest person to the President of the United States and is expected to offer a gentle pre-diplomacy welcome and increase unofficial diplomatic channels between states on a personal level. This seems likely but will it slice through deep-rooted differences of China and America?

It’s a start. Courting the Chinese through informal and closed settings might be much more effective than otherwise at traditional centers of embassies or institutions. When the President meets Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Netherlands on Monday and Tuesday at the Nuclear Security Summit, it will be back to a formal relations basis and will likely be business as usual and on side issues, more of ‘let’s agree to disagree,’ unless new pieces are introduced to the game.

So First Lady Diplomacy, although informal, is a positive step taken where Washington and Beijing have had so few of them. More of these retreats, if meaningful, are good, so long as they do not push the boundaries of political discussions and their primary focus is positive appearance between states. Obviously if the person is despicable and unlikeable, this cannot work either.

First Lady diplomacy can show hope to both states and cool the more aggressive elements of each population. It acts as a foot-in-the-door approach but it also builds genuine backchannels and information exchanges. But it is not based on reality so much as a pursued perception.

Mrs. Obama’s visit centered on education and exercise, for example. These are both strong neutral topic of mutual concern. China has much to gain from brain drain and if it can attract students to study in China from first world states, it might be able to attract some of this brain capital back in the long-term.

Mrs. Obama added a little spice to the mix by stressing the importance of unrestrained freedom of information, which the Chinese took to mean in regards to education and research. A video-conference with students in China and the US was uniquely modern as well. This was a great start to build bridges and the increase of American foreign exchange students traveling to China and learning the language and culture there as well.

A follow-on meeting might focus on critical needs such as charity between nations and positive steps to reinforce humanitarian actions and aid across states. This might be in regard to many things but could be centered on aide to China’s massive pollution epidemic. Without condemning China, there will be many opportunities that are charitable, lucrative and diplomatic. The US must re-establish even the fundamental values they share—even if that means healthy educated and happy population to start with—the “systemic” how to that approach can come later.

 

 

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