Taip-ei Personality

Until the 19^th century, China did not recognize the concept of “ambassadors” from other nations. To do so would have been an acknowledgement that other nations had equal nation-state status, and that simply wasn’t in the Chinese view of the world. Representatives from other countries were viewed as “tribute ambassadors,” able to represent their countries at a level where they were paying homage to the “Middle Kingdom” – China really had no equivalent of “China”… they were simply the center of everything. In the 15^th century, the famous Ming Emperor Zhu Di, whose eunuch Admiral Zheng He roamed the world in massive fleets with water-tight compartments extracting tribute from every port of call, was asked why he never sent forces to the Middle East and points east (Europe), was reputed to have said, “They are barbarians; they have nothing to offer.” It was modern Western weapons, particularly cannon-laden ships, that tipped the balance toward recognition of nations that could possibly be China’s equal.

In the 17^th century, England discovered the joys of Chinese tea, long before that crop was transferred to the fields of India. By 1654, it was the most popular drink in Britain. The addiction to tea drinking, amazingly, tipped the balance of payments in silver and gold so heavily in favor of China – the Chinese found nothing manufactured in England worthy of massive trade – the British threatened military action unless the Chinese created a two-way trading street. Claiming medicinal benefits, the British slowly addicted as many Chinese as they could to opium… even as the Chinese government protested that creating addicts was contrary to her laws. In the middle of the 19^th century, superior Western firepower (Britain and her allies, including the U.S. until her ships were withdrawn to fight the Civil War) forced ports to open, concessions in Shanghai, Macao and Hong Kong. China was only nominally the “Middle Kingdom.” – the Opium Wars have always been a sore spot with the Chinese. Until the economic resurgence that began in the 1980s and continued into the power that is modern China, China slipped into an unnatural role as a second rate power, a nation dwarfed by Western power and technology.

Why is any of this remotely relevant to the modern world? Because China has languished as a second-rate power for hundreds of years, but she never ever let go of the notion of being the center of the earth. Chinese suffered a profound inferiority complex, particularly as Mao’s communist mandate still made the Chinese quality of life pale in comparison to the West. His solution? Seal off contact with the rest of the world and focus on nuclear weapons to make the earth shudder at China’s power.

In 1949, conservative Chang Kai-Shek led a breakaway faction to the island of Formosa to form the Republic of China, just as Mao Zhedong established the Peoples Republic of China, claiming that the new island nation on Formosa (Taiwan) was nothing more than are rebel province that belonged to the PRC. Chang Kai-Shek, known for heavy-handed corruption for those who really knew, managed successfully to court the United States through his charming wife and powerful, American-connected in-laws. The friction between the United States and China continued over the military protection umbrella that the U.S. has consistently given to the Taipei government (Taipei is the capital city of the Republic of China) into the present day. China (PRC) preached a formal absorption of the rebel Republic as the only possible outcome (the so-called “One China” policy). The U.S. has constantly opposed this notion as long as Taipei wanted to remain separate. Machinations over seating in the United Nations gave the PRC “face” against Taipei, but the sore spot has never healed. This battle continues despite the extreme business connectivity between Taipei and Beijing, inexorably linking their economies, which seems to operate without reference to the higher-level political disputes.

Of late, tensions between the U.S. and China have escalated. We are challenging their limitation on the import of film and television programming in the World Trade Organization. We have been pressing China to join the pact of nations forcing Iran to disarm in connection with potential nuclear weapons, but China actively buys a huge slice of Iran’s oil output. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced financial support for groups fighting China’s internal censorship rules, particularly regarding Internet access.

The January 31^st AmericanChronicle.com focuses on some of the most difficult aspects of our trade disputes with the PRC: “The recent flare-up with Google, in which the search giant threatened to leave China over censorship, may be the tip of the iceberg… More challenging, say software companies and makers of clean-energy products, is a new policy encouraging ‘indigenous innovation.’ That policy requires the intellectual property behind a host of technology products sold in China to be developed and owned by Chinese companies…‘The U.S. should fully expect to be battling Chinese policy to get into these sectors,’ said U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens, co-chairman of the bipartisan U.S.-China Working Group, which works to educate Congress about relations with China. Beijing's new measure takes the growing ‘tit-for-tat’ trade disputes over steel and poultry to a new level… ‘When it comes to protectionism, we're minor-league players when you look at what China is doing,’ Larsen said.”

China has also lambasted America’s profligate deficit spending and the attempt to devalue the dollar (and hence make Chinese goods more expensive in the U.S.) against the Chinese currency. And China has trillions of dollars in currency reserve as she bought deficit debt to stabilize the U.S. currency… leaving her has our largest creditor nation. And now China is reacting to American support of Taiwan with a roar.

We have always supplied weapons to the Taipei government; China has always protested when we do. And even though China had serious advanced notice of the latest deal, the reaction to a recent arms trade to Taipei was clearly one of the most negative and strident in recent history: “Calling in U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman on Saturday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said the United States would be responsible for ‘serious repercussions’ if it did not reverse the decision to sell Taiwan $6.4 billion worth of helicopters, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles, minesweepers and communications gear. The reaction came even though China has known for months about the planned deal, U.S. officials said.” January 31^st Washington Post.

Chinese’s Olympic ceremonies were a loud statement to themselves and the world that the old Chinese mega-superpower was back. Anyone witnessing this magnificent presentation had to be impressed. This new strident tone appears to be a clear indication that China feels superior enough to the rest of the world – she was not remotely impacted by the overleveraging that decimated Western economies in the big recession – to stand up and make an old point in a new and powerful way… a sign that China expects that her economic and military power are enough the challenge U.S. supremacy on a world stage. The Post: “Analysts say a combination of hubris and insecurity appears to be driving China's mood. On one hand, Beijing thinks that the relative ease with which it skated over the global financial crisis underscores the superiority of its system and that China is not only rising but has arrived on the global stage -- much faster than anyone could have predicted. On the other, recent uprisings in the western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang have fed Chinese leaders' insecurity about their one-party state. As such, any perceived threat to their power is met with a backlash.”

While I believe that some of this balance is in this powerful reaction and that China will back off the rhetoric soon, I also believe that we, as Americans, need to pay close attention to China’s own renewed perception of herself as the true “Middle Kingdom” once again and realize that life is never going to be the same. China actually can push hard, and there is little that we are able to do about it, given our weak economy, heavy deficit and total internal fractionalization between Republican and Democrats. It’s time to stop fighting among ourselves, a habit that is weakening our power throughout the world. It’s time to get on the same page and become Americans again.

I’m Peter Dekom, and sometimes it’s worth looking at the lessons of history.