AMU Homeland Security Opinion

China Continues to Miss Out in Taking the Lead

By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security

These are the Chinese golden years. Not as bright as the last two decades but still golden. China has the opportunity before it to be the next superpower of an era or fall back into another cold, dark and solitary “cultural revolution.”

Instead, China should focus on building a friendly partnership with the U.S. Do whatever the U.S. says and at the same time, keep building their military. They should change their political infrastructure, become more of a partner with Europe and Japan and defeat their neighbors through trade superiority, diplomacy and purchasing power alone. The military would keep growing and that could at this point be overlooked because China would be on track to become a benign liberal power. The focus would be on maintaining Chinese cultural legacy but emphasize a “cultural evolution” rather than a “cultural revolution.”

Why be stubborn and get less when you can have the world and cooperate. How does the old adage go: “When in Rome…”

While the world is not Rome, because America landscaped much of it, and bankrolled Europe for their support as well, the world really does reflect a modern version of Rome in a distant evolved sense. Regardless, if China wants to put her stamp on the world, she will need to play along more for longer. The next step is political reform.

China must learn to “give some to gain some.” Most importantly, as Beijing learns to do this, Washington must offer the Chinese more support, when China can display political reform sincerity. But the burden should be on China to be “better,” instead of the notion the rest of the world to resist another authoritarian regime.

The dispute between China and Japan is also in many ways tragically hilarious as it is blindly foolish. Chinese strategy of bumper boats and water cannons and fly-bys are absolutely ridiculously counter-productive. They will eventually rule the seas so why bother with all of the circus and pomp? Rallying ethno-nationalism within China itself along with these maneuvers is equally foolish. All of these methods are playbacks in time.

Could Beijing push harder? Yes. They have and are likely charted to do so. But this is a grave mistake; especially since they have an inevitable victory already ahead in the long-run through by other more certain means. It would be more advantageous to target cooperation than conflict, even if they have to lose some more in the beginning. They must rekindle the art of patience.

Beijing needs to get its act together in more ways than one. They need to decide if they want to be part of the future or the past. They can also provide a trail to the past but not a bridge. Real progress will demand a sacrifice.

As for Japan’s nationalization of the Senkaku/Diao Yu Islands, Beijing should plan on buying them in the future, rather than military intimidation. For the South China Seas Paracel and Spratley Islands, China will likely be able to buy them, access or rights without much trouble in the future. While I sympathize with anger for a monopolized land-grab, the Nine Dotted Line is absolutely ridiculous and China and Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines must continue to work with the international community and international law.

Beijing must tackle an enormous internal burden of: civil unrest, pollution, corruption, separatists, terrorists and economic perturbation. All of these things require better relations with Washington and the West. They would be facilitated with modern political reform and a liberal composition of governance, not the anachronistic authoritarian court. If they fail to do so, history will judge them as the greatest missed opportunity of all times. They will continue to move backwards in time, not forwards. If China wants to take the lead, it must first learn to master the art of patient following and seize the future rather than the past.

 

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