More China Scare Tactics From the American Right
For years it’s been a closely held secret: The People’s Republic of China is an empire desperately trying to make the world think it’s a state.
–Charles Hill, Hoover Institution (writing in Forbes)
All I really need to say is that this guy is a douchebag, but I suppose that is already apparent from the above quote. Well, as long as you’re all here, we might as well go into a bit more detail.
The Forbes article (h/t China Digital Times) is really about Xinjiang and Islamist policy, and the writer is apparently an expert in that area. Good for him, but his take on China’s foreign policy is straight out of the China Bashers’ playbook.
Aside from the fact that it’s hard to take seriously any American conservative criticizing another country for empire building (I assume he is a right-wing type because of his Hoover involvement), Hill suffers from the George Will disease: make a sufficient number of historical references and readers will assume that your argument is sound.
This is what Hill attempts to do. For example, he tries to connect Qing Dynasty foreign policy to that of the PRC, asserting a continuity of policy (although based on different political theories). Thus we get lovely statements like this one:
Communist China’s evil twin, the USSR, had been the territorial successor to the Tsarist empire as Mao’s PRC had been to the Qing.
Bleah. I’m not saying that Hill gets his facts wrong, mind you. It’s just that his conclusions are off kilter. After noting that the PRC is steadfast in its opposition to foreign nation intervention in its affairs, Hill decides not to be balanced and discuss the Unequal Treaties of the 19th Century, and instead gives us this:
China takes every care to present itself as the perfect, and most particular, international citizen.
Note the not-so-thinly-veiled sarcasm.
My favorite passage of Hill’s that really shows off the paranoid thinking of the American right wing concerns China’s naval presence. His comments of course lead one to believe that the best US policy will be one of military buildup in the Pacific. Shocking, I know. Hey, it worked so well against Japan in the 1930s, let’s give it another try.
As the U.S. Navy is starting to realize, a major PRC aim is to transform all the waters of maritime Asia–those between the continental mainland and the offshore states of Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia–into a Chinese “lake.” If nominally still in the category of international straits or high seas, these waters would become de facto a “no go” zone for the world’s shipping. Chinese authorities would have to be prenotified and approve passage there–imperial-era influence regained.
Not sure where he is getting all this stuff, but it is certainly breathtaking in its paranoid, fantastical setting of a future dominated by Chinese warships acting as keepers of global trade routes.
I think some experts on Islamic nations should stay far away from China commentary.
Sad to see this type of drivel still being published in prominent magazines. I am always amazed to read well-educated and notable people using articulated arguments to define the world so starkly – as if we live in a dominion controlled by angels and demons.
You know, after writing that post earlier today, I realized that I was being a bit too tough on Mr. Hill and George Will. At least these guys feel the need to get their research assistants to come up with some facts and figures to dress up their empty arguments.
An ‘A’ for effort. Much more preferable than someone like Sarah Palin, who supports her empty arguments with nothing more than authentic frontier gibberish
. Standards are declining rapidly.I think you are right. China is an empire, but it is not trying to make the world think it is a state.
I thought China was a state of mind.
I only wish such stupidy were, as you seem to want to believe, confined to the right. The reality is that this sort of stuff comes from BOTH the left and the right. The left simply pitches their hatred for China from the standpoint of the exploited workers. The political reality is that this stuff sells quite well in the US from both sides of the aisle and so we never have a shortage of people out there pitching it…..
Agreed that there is a lot of Leftish stupidity about China, usually confined to trade, labor, environmental, and certain other issues deemed to be “moral” in nature.
Similar demonizing. Seems like a lot more bloviating, Op-Eds, etc. from rightwing types, though. Let’s face it, the anti-China forces on the right have more power with their party than do the extreme left of the Democrats, who can’t even get health care done the correct way . . .
Also, none of the complaining from the left results in changes to our military policy. Can’t say the same for the paranoid fantasies of neocons.