Is China ready to be a global power?
- Source: Global Times
- [23:27 November 10 2009]
- Comments
President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, and US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman have all made speeches this year calling on China to be a greater global partner of the US. More could be done by China in some of the aforementioned areas. With respect to the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, Beijing could use more of its influence and leverage behind the scenes to halt these programs.
Of course, Beijing is chronically adverse to using sanctions and other coercive measures, but it could still more clearly make the case to the governments in Pyongyang and Tehran that they will face ever-increasing international isolation unless they opt to trade their nuclear ambitions for normalizing their positions in regional and international affairs.
Then there is Afghanistan and Pakistan – two countries where China's national security interests are directly affected and where the international community has a common mission to destroy Al Qaeda and the Taliban and bring stability and security to Afghanistan and the Pakistani border region. Yet where is China?
Beijing is playing a very low-key role in its discussions with the Pakistani government, providing some weapons to the Pakistani military, and exploiting a large copper mine south of Kabul. This is the image the world has of China's present role.
It would be much better for China's image as a responsible major power to be seen contributing (and dying) alongside NATO and other governments and militaries.
If the PLA cannot be deployed into combat zones, why can't the People's Armed Police be deployed to maintain security in major cities and train Afghan police (something it has done so well in East Timor, Haiti, and elsewhere)?
Contributing in such a direct way to Afghanistan's domestic security would be a significant contribution, and would be very positively perceived in the US and Europe if Chinese soldiers served alongside Americans, Europeans, and other nations that are part of the international coalition.
Just as importantly, China could also contribute significantly to hard infrastructure building, schools and public health clinics in Afghanistan – as it has so successfully done throughout Africa.
The issue of China's role in the global climate change negotiations is also an important opportunity for Beijing to show it is part of the solution and not just part to the problem.
Specific numbers on emissions caps need to be added to Hu Jintao's positive speech to the UN in September, prior to the UN Climate Change Conference Copenhagen in December.
This is likely to be an issue high on the agenda in Obama's discussions with Hu.
These are three areas where China can do "some things"more on the global stage and contribute more greatly to global governance.
They are all areas where China's own national interests are deeply affected, but there is not yet a commensurate commitment from Beijing to match interests with tangible contributions.
It is time for two things to occur: First, the West should recognize more clearly the positive contributions China is already making to global governance; Second, it is time for China to more deeply engaged with the most sensitive security issues of the day.
The summit discussions between Obama and Hu are a good place to begin.
The author is a Visiting Senior Fulbright Scholar at the Institute of World Economics & Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, on leave from George Washington University and The Brookings Institution in Washington DC. shambaug@ gwu.edu
