 Bush's courageous challenge to Beijing's Dragon Throne
UNITED NATIONS — Thirty years to the day that President Richard M. Nixon touched down in Beijing airport in the "Spirit of 76", President George W. Bush arrived in the Chinese capital. The timing was curiously coincidential as much as it was ironic. When Nixon went to China, Mao's minions were still running the show — the country was in ideological lockstep and economic chaos. Today China's Marxist Mandarins have a decidedly corporate side, and neeedless to say the country is not defined by the dour Maoist fashion or economic stagnation. While praising these obvious changes — actually W was in Peking in 1975 while his father was Washignton's unofficial envoy — President Bush called on the Chinese communists to reform political society and permit religious freedoms. The president's comments which were met with seething silence by his hosts, nonetheless let the PRC know that Amerrica will not adopt the silence of the lambs towards human rights abuses and religious persecution. Richard Nixon visited China with a strategic vision — divide and split the communst world, extricate the U.S. from Vietnam, and open trade ties with the world's most populous nation. Bill Clinton came to the Chinese offering a cornocopia of corporate contacts and commercial goodies fueled by a consumate desire to sell more American products including a long-banned list of high tech items. While the Bush/Jiang meeting was hardly chummy, as the Financial Times opined editorially, "The value of the Summit lies in the clarification of the differences between the two. BIll Clinton tried to circumvent these by denoting China as a strategic partner . But the ex-president's diplomatic bonhomie and saxophone serenades seemed faintly ridiculous given the huge divergences on human rights, non-proliferation, and relations with Taiwan." Hardly kowtowing before the Dragon throne's rulers, President Bush spoke of religious freedoms for China's many faiths. An American President had the political courage to raise the issue of imprisoned Catholic Bishops which is more than most of the American Catholic Bishops would dare to do openly. Bush did not fudge on America's continuing supoport for a free and democratic Taiwan while at the same time supporting the concept of "one China" with a formula yet to be determined. "Freedom of religion is not something to be feared but welcomed, because faith gives us a moral core an teaches us to hold ourselves to high standards and to live responsible lives," Bush told a Chinese audience. He added, "Tens of millions of Chinese today are relearning Buddhist and Taoist religions or practicing Christianity, Islam, and other faiths." The President added pointedly, "For centuries, this country had a tradition of religious tolerance. My prayer is that all persecution will end so that all in China are free to gather and worship as they wish." Searingly poignant words, being delivered in Beijing's Tsing-hua University and not on a campaign swing in the Amerrican heartland. May I say this is genuine political guts. The counterpoint was that many of the President's remarks were crudely cut and edited out of statements which appeared on Chinese TV. Significantly the Bush vision touched on what Sino American relations can realistically achieve to cooperate and prosper without any of the Clintonian concessions about "strategic relationships" with what remains the world's largest dictatorship. In other words, the art of the possible — support in the war on terror, flexibility on North Korea, and less aggressive arms sales to Islamic states. Indeed the PRC had supported two key U.N. Security Council resolutions combatting terror. President Bush was nervous meeting with his PRC political class, not so much because he fears therm but rather putting it bluntly he loathes their regime. That having been said, it does not mean that Washington and Beijing are destined to be enemies. Far from it. The American and Chinese people are natural friends — despite the cultural Sino centrism of which they should be rightly proud, Chinese and Americans have a genuine affinity. Significantly since 1978, over 189,000 Chinese students have studied in the USA. It would be foolish to discount the long term social and political implications of such exposure in a free country. Historically at the eve of the China's last Dynasty, foreign educated students played a vital role in the new Republic set up by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Putting it bluntly the People's Republic of China needs the USA far more than the other way around. Look at the numbers. In 2000, our trade deficit with the PRC was a whopping and almost immoral $83 billion according to the Financial Times. Fine, I understand the mantra about free trade, but during the worst of our trade deficits with Japan, the numbers — far more emotionally charged — were nothing like this. Besides, Japan has the economic capacity to afford to purchase American products. China simply does not have the monied classes to be able to tilt the trade balance even if they wanted to. Beyond this, last year alone the PRC attracted $49 billion in direct foreign investment. There's another issue too — later this year at the ruling Communist Party Congress, the reigns of power are being passed from President and party boss Jiang Zemin. The jockeying is intense inside the walls of the Forbidden City. The odds are that Vice President Hu Jintao (60) a younger technocrat who distinguished himself suppressing the Tibetans will be the next leader. Others in the proletarian pantheon are vying both for power and for protection from the corruption scandals which characterize PRC, INC. To this backdrop, Jiang Zemin who was hardly charmed by George Bush's political observations, still called the summit meetings "fruitful and significant." For Jiang, the American visitor after all, provided a diversion from some brewing political storms.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
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