The Rediff Special /T Karki Hussain
The fall of the Soviet Union has further alerted the regime that
China could be the next target
While ideological, geopolitical and now geoeconomic considerations have influenced the conduct of Chinese foreign policy, its context
however, has been altered by recent developments. China's apprehensiveness
toward the US has been palpable after the Tiananmen incident in
June 1989.
China interpreted the demonstration as a product of
conspiracy and collusion between domestic and foreign elements
to change the Chinese political system. The fall of the Soviet
Union has further alerted the regime that China could be the next
target.
With the disappearance of the countervailing power of the
Soviet Union, the US has now emerged as the sole superpower and
finds itself in a position of unchallenged pre-eminence throughout
the world. It is perceived as intimidatory and interfering.
Pragmatic as ever, China stresses its vital interest in good relations with
the US by making tactical concessions on minor issues, while opposing
its bullying tactics (e g, when Beijing insisted on a public
apology and compensation for the Yinhe episode in which American
planes and warships tracked the Chinese cargo ship though to be
transporting chemicals to Iran).
China is searching for a counterstrategy
to checkmate what it views as a potentially threatening position
by the US. Interestingly, its manner of combating American demands
is to display Chinese reasonableness in accepting correctives
in the right spirit occasionally but standing up to any imposition
or prescription from outside on political and human rights or
arms sales.
The Chinese have also come out with a new definition
of hegemonism. It may be recalled that from its inception till
the early 1980s, China had swung from one external alignment to
the other in order to find an equilibrium between the two superpowers.
Hence the two-camp theory, the three world theory and the United
Front strategy were in defiance of one superpower or the other,
and China, guided by its threat perceptions at any given point
of time, would choose the lesser evil as a strategic ally till
the situation changed in its favour.
In short, hegemonistic conduct
described the adversarial relationship in its totality, nothing
less. According to a Chinese interlocutor, 'China now regards
hegemonism as a policy or an action and not necessarily designating
a specific country. China will oppose hegemonism on specific issues
or cases regardless of whether it is pursued by a global power
or a regional power. It does not mean that China regards that
particular power as its enemy.'
This approach fits in rather well with its present 'omnidirectional'
approach in foreign relations which underlines the multi-pronged,
multi-layered diplomacy of seeking assistance and co-operation from
the advanced states, building a network of economic interests
with the newly industrialising countries and others who are not
far behind, besides fence-mending and good-neighbourliness with
the rest, based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence.
That China is evidently making good its promise of initiating benign
diplomacy corresponding with the buoyant rhetoric alluded to above
is reflected in its efforts to normalise political relations with
some of the countries against which it had spearheaded a no holds
barred diplomatic offensive, lasting several years at a stretch
in the past.
Two of these countries ironically happened to be
Marxist states -- the Soviet Union and Vietnam. The third was
non-aligned India, with which China had co-initiated the Panch Sheel
framework for bilateral interaction, and its leaders had briefly
shared Nehru's vision of a common destiny built around Asian solidarity
and co-operation.
Since China developed major differences with
the three and remained at odds with them till very recently,
its external behaviour was considerably shaped by its conflictual
relationships. In the process, however, a regional policy also
took some concrete shape.
Excerpted from India and Southeast Asia
edited by Baladas Ghoshal, Konarak, 1996, Rs 150, with the publisher's permission.
Readers may direct inquiries about the book to Mr K P R Nair, Konarak Publishers, A-149,
Main Vikas Marg, Delhi 11 00 92.
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