COVER STORY

Foreign policy directions

China is in the process of reorienting its foreign policy with the focus on promoting stability and prosperity in the Asian region and bringing about multipolarity in international relations.

JOHN CHERIAN

CHINA'S foreign policy has evolved considerably over the past 50 years. In 1949, Mao Zedong unequivocally announced the "lean to one side" policy: "The Chinese people must lean either to the side of imperialism or to the side of socialism. There can be n o sitting on the fence; there is no third path."

The China-Soviet Union axis lasted until the late 1950s. There were many concrete manifestations of the friendship. One of these was the Soviet assistance to China in the nuclear field, which began in 1957. A year later the Soviet Union sent a heavy wate r type reactor to Beijing. This relationship was the cornerstone of Chinese foreign policy during the first decade after the Revolution.

In the early 1960s, the simmering ideological differences between Beijing and Moscow boiled over, and until the 1980s the two countries remained implacable ideological foes. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a unipolar world once again made Beijing reorient its policies. Now Moscow and Beijing have re-established a "special" relationship but it is unlikely that the close ties of the 1950s will be replicated.

In the last two decades China's foreign policy has to a large extent been dictated by its security environment. China has about two dozen neighbours. Five of them - Russia, Japan, India, Pakistan and Indonesia - have a population of over 100 million each . China's foreign policy with regard to its non-Communist neighbours has been more or less consistent. Bilateral relations with these countries are guided by the five principles of peaceful co-existence: mutual respect for each other's territory and sove reignty; mutual non-aggression; non-interference in each other's domestic affairs; equality of relationship; and mutual benefit.

China played a crucial role in the Korean war in 1950 when it unhesitatingly sent a million "volunteers" to fight the American invasion. Chinese help to the Vietnamese in the 1940s and 1950s in their fight against the French and later in the 1960s and th e 1970s against the Americans was also of great importance.

CHINA'S key role in the 1955 Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung (Indonesia), where its theme of peaceful co-existence won it a leadership position among the countries of the Third World, was an important foreign policy milestone. The Chinese Government did its bit in the struggle to decolonise the Third World by providing liberation movements both moral and material support. In the 1960s and the 1970s, Beijing undertook ambitious infrastructure projects on a turn-key basis in the developing world. The rai lway line connecting Lusaka to Dar-es-Salam, which was completed in the 1970s, has contributed to the development of the region. Many underdeveloped countries benefited from such projects.

But after Deng Xiaoping consolidated his hold on power and ushered in the Four Modernisations - agriculture, industry, science and technology and national defence - Chinese foreign policy became more pragmatic. The focus was now on turning China into a l eading modern state by the year 2000. Since the 1980s Chinese officials have repeatedly emphasised the importance of economic development while underlining the danger posed by looming U.S. hegemony. The Chinese view is that in the 21st century, national power will derive primarily from economic, scientific and technological prowess.

THE HINDU PHOTO LIBRARY
April 1955: President Sukarno of Indonesia addresses the Afro-Asian Conference in Bandung, at which China played a key role and emerged into a leadership position among countries of the developing world with the theme of peaceful coexistence with its Asian neighbours.

The fast pace of events instigated in the latter half of the 1980S by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's "new thinking" alarmed Beijing. China made no secret of its view that Gorbachev's reforms oriented towards perestroika (restructuring) and g lasnost (openness) would lead to the weakening of the Soviet Union and the socialist world. Secondly, the critical position Washington adopted after the Chinese authorities tackled the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, led to a serious rethink in Be ijing. It became apparent to China that Washington was using the issue of "human rights" to interfere in its domestic affairs. Another alarming development related to indications of Japan's overt inclination to assume again the role of a military power.

The situation in the Korean peninsula was seen in Beijing as yet another matter of concern. The United States had made it clear by the mid-1990s that it intended to keep a forward force of 10,000 troops deployed in Japan and Korea for the next 20 years. Naturally China feels that these forces are aimed at it. Washington retains the right to position nuclear weapons in Okinawa in Japan, in case a military crisis erupts in the region. In May 1999, the Japanese Diet (parliament) passed legislation to enabl e the implementation of the U.S.' plans for joint U.S.-Japan operations in case another war breaks out in East Asia. The guidelines replace the joint strategy drawn up more than 20 years ago to fight the Soviet Union.

Beijing feels that it is being shortchanged by the U.S. and Japan on the Taiwan issue. President Bill Clinton, after visiting China in 1998, reiterated his support for China's position on the Taiwan question. But in July this year President Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan declared that Taiwan no longer considered itself part of China. China was infuriated and has announced its intention to "uphold national sovereignty, dignity and territorial integrity". The U.S., on the other hand, has pledged to defend Taiwan if it faces an external attack. From China's point of view, the U.S. position is aimed at preventing China from emerging as a great power.

The distrust between China and Japan runs deep and is fuelled by historical animosities. Beijing is suspicious of the intentions of Japan as also of some other states in its immediate neighbourhood that are cosying up to the U.S. and tacitly supporting P entagon's long-term plans to encircle China militarily. The Americans are doing their best to prevent China from emerging as the dominant power in the region and to hold on to their claim to be the sole arbiter in the Asia-Pacific region. China may be tr ying to follow the Japanese strategy of economic development, but it has carefully avoided the Japanese pattern of subservience to the U.S.

The recent crisis in Kosovo, during which the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed by U.S.-led forces, has further alienated Beijing from Washington. The continuing expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the plans to set up a theatre missile defence (TMD) system are also viewed as manifestations of Washington's desire to dominate the world. The TMD umbrella is ostensibly meant to shield Japan, South Korea and Taiwan from a perceived missile attack. The system wou ld for all practical purposes make Taiwan a U.S. protectorate. China is justified in concluding that a new Cold War is in the making, with itself replacing the Soviet Union as the "enemy".

However, the Chinese leadership is optimistic about multipolarity in international relations becoming a reality in the not-so-distant future. Chinese security and strategic experts are of the opinion that Russia will recover and will soon pursue vigorous ly its national interests. They do not expect Japan to remain subservient to the U.S. for long and they feel that China will emerge as a world power.

GAMMA
U.S. President Richard Nixon with Chairman Mao during a path-breaking visit to China in February 1972.

China is also aware of the U.S. backing to separatist ethnic and religious tendencies. Beijing has accused Washington of supporting a pan-Mongolian movement. Inner Mongolia is part of China. Statements have been issued from Mongolia urging "the peoples o f Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang to fight for freedom and independence". In Xinjiang, the movement by Islamic fundamentalists to create an independent "Republic of East Turkistan" has the tacit support of the U.S. The U.S. encouragement to the separa tists in Tibet is well-documented.

The Shanghai Group of Five, consisting of China, Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic, is coordinating action to combat the separatist and fundamentalist forces. Beijing attaches great importance to this regional grouping, citing it as an illustration of multipolarity. China, like India and Russia, takes the threat from Islamic fundamentalists seriously. Followers of Islam in China are concentrated mainly in the Xinjiang area (Muslims in the country number more than 17 million). China depends a great deal on Pakistan to use its influence on the Taliban leaders to prevent the supply of arms to Islamic rebels in Xinjiang.

WASHINGTON has accused Beijing of being one of the biggest arms exporters. Chinese officials, however, maintain that they are careful about entering into defence deals. The Chinese Government has denied that it has supplied missiles and advanced missile technology to countries such as Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Beijing has accused Washington of being a greater proliferator of nuclear weapons, pointing out that the U.S. is the world's largest weapons exporter, with 44 per cent of the global sales. The Chinese Government is especially angry about the sale of high-tech U.S. weapons to Taiwan. The warm relations Beijing has with Moscow today has made China the second largest defence partner of Russia. India is the biggest buyer of Russian weapons.

Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov was a strong proponent of a Moscow-New Delhi-Beijing strategic axis to counter U.S. hegemony. But both New Delhi and Beijing, for their own reasons, were lukewarm to this proposal. But they do share some com mon perspectives. For instance, both India and China are alarmed at the growing trend in international politics of using "human rights" as a pretext to intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign countries. The Clinton administration has used this rat ionale to intervene in Kosovo.

Further, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's call for "more active intervention" by the U.N. when civilian populations are at risk has set alarm bells ringing. Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan has said that respect for national sovereignty and non-interference in the affairs of another country "are the basic principles governing international relations" and that any deviation from these would lead to a new form of gunboat diplomacy that would "wreak havoc" with global peace.

VIKTOR KOROTAYEV / AP
President Jiang with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, an August 1999 picture. Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a unipolar world, Moscow and Beijing have re-established a "special" relationship but it seems unlikely that the close ties of the 1950s will ever be replicated.

China continues to have close ties with developing countries. It is involved in a number of joint ventures which, according to Chinese officials, are for "mutual benefit". The government allows "special enterprises" to take part in these ventures. China recently completed a major project in Sudan, which involved the developing of an oilfield and the laying of an oil pipeline. This project has made Sudan an oil-exporting country. Cash-strapped Sudan will repay China with crude oil. Sudan is one of severa l countries facing a U.S. economic embargo.

China has excellent relations with Cuba. It is one of the biggest trade partners of Cuba outside Latin America. Moreover, Beijing has been vociferous in its criticism of the inhuman U.S.economic blockade against Cuba. Both Cuban President Fidel Castro an d President Jiang Zemin have exchanged visits.

BEIJING'S focus is on promoting stability and prosperity in the region. Defence Minister General Chi Haotian said recently that the confidence-building measures (CBMs) signed by China since 1994 with Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and India h ave increased mutual trust and provided safeguards for border security. This in turn has promoted stability and prosperity.

China is on the verge of settling most of its border disputes. The long-standing disputes with Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States have been more or less resolved. China and Vietnam have set the year 2000 as the deadline for resolving their border problems. The dispute with India is the only one that remains to be resolved. Chinese officials feel that a solution to this could take some time as the Line of Actual Control was never fully demarcated.

Jiang Zemin, in a recent speech in Bangkok, said that "the world is far from being tranquil. Hegemonism and power politics still exist and have even been developed in the international political, economic and security fields." He added that the "gunboat policy" and the economic neo-colonialism pursued by some powers had undermined the independence and development interests of many small and medium-sized countries and threatened world peace and international security.