Experts: How to Win Friends Abroad, and to Lose them at Home

Huanqiu Shibao quotes the gist of what ten academics said in a Central Party School discussion on May 5. This post contains translations from four of the quotes, and a few comments from the Huanqiu readership.

Wang Fan (王帆, Professor, Director of the Institute of International Relations, and Assistant President, China Foreign Affairs University):

In terms of power and politics in Asia, the cold-war mentality won’t go away. China should reduce the negative effects of cold-war mentality, manage crises, and take preventive measures against crises. In the framework of the maintained status quo, a consensus with America should be worked out. On the one hand, multilateral security cooperation should be strengthened, on the other, untraditional security cooperation should be strengthened, and the East Asia Kyousei Forum (东亚共生) model be used, to solve issues of balanced development in East Asia.
从亚洲地区权力与政治的现状来看，冷战思维是不可能消除的，中国应减少冷战思维的负面影响，管控危机、预防危机。在维持亚洲现状的情况下与美国达成共识。一方面加强多边安全合作，另一方面加强非传统安全合作，充分利用东亚共生的现象，解决好东亚均衡发展问题。

Zhang Yansheng (张燕生, the Institute for International Economics Research of the National Development and Reform Commission’s academic-commission secretary):

In the next few years, according to the current pace of development, the size of China’s economy will overtake America’s. During this process, there will be competition between China and America, and China  [correction, May 12: America] will do everything in its power to hold China back. This is a critical stage for China as a country. To respond to these unfavorable prospects, China needs to change its development pattern and establish a pattern which lends support to a order and to a legal system. From an export-oriented economy, it must internationalize [in terms of] talent, markets, industry, capital etc., strategically and structurally link China with the international systems, and structural transformation is the core here.
未来几年，按照现有的发展速度，中国的经济规模将会超过美国。在这个进程中，中美会出现竞争，美国会千方百计地阻止中国。因此，对中国来说，这是一个国家发展的关键时期。中国若要应对这一不利前景，必须改变前30年的发展模式，建立一个基于规则和法制的发展模式，由外向型经济转变为人才、市场、产业、资本等的国际化，在体制、战略和结构上与国际制度接轨，其中体制转变是核心。

Shao Feng, (邵峰, CASS Global Economics and Politcs Research Institute’s Strategy Office director):

A country’s overall level of development is the actual embodiment of its soft power. Four international strategic issues urgently need research and solutions:

• the issue of strategic timing, how China should seize its opportunities and solve issues inherited from history
• the issue of China having too few friends internationally, of how to win more friends through the establishment of common values and common benefit
• the issue of raising China’s international image, and
• the issue of building the national economy and society.

国家整体发展水平才是国家软实力的体现。中国国际战略研究急需研究解决以下四个课题：一是战略时机问题，中国应如何抓住时机，解决历史遗留问题；二是中国在世界上朋友太少，如何通过建立共同价值观和共同利益，在国际社会争取更多朋友；三是提升中国国际形象；四是加强国家经济、社会等建设。

Wang Hongxu (王红续, Central Party School International Strategic Research and Chinese Diplomacy Research Office director):

In the definition of international strategies [an international strategy], the domestic environment and the international environment are equally important. China’s current unbalanced development and cultural soft power stays far behind its economic development, and its position in international public opinion and  discourse dominance [also: the right to speak - 话语权] is weak. In view of that, China still needs to practise, on the global stage, the basic strategy defined in the 1980s. Obviously, there need to be adjustments in accordance with new situations and new characteristics. China hasn’t yet achieved an international cultural strategy, and that has to change.
在制定国际战略时，国内环境和国际环境同样重要。中国目前的发展不平衡，文化软实力大大滞后于经济发展，在国际舆论和话语权方面处于弱势地位。鉴于以上情况，中国在上世纪80年代制定的基本战略还需要继续实行。当然，要根据新形势和新特点，进行适当调整。目前，中国还没有成体系的国际文化战略，这一情况需要改变。

-

Comments from the Huanqiu Shibao readership:

It only takes very small numbers of troops to regain ones territories and territorial waters! Why all the pondering? In the War to Resist America and to Aid Korea, and the self-defense strike against Vietnam, it took very few troops! These so-called experts are apparently all women! — There is no masculine disposition here! This becomes especially apparent in the ideological methods. Take these [experts] and put them next to Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping to compare their ideological methods would do too much honor [to these experts].
收复自己的领土领海而动用非常少量的军队!用得着这样思前想后的吗?和在抗美援朝战场及对越反自卫击战投入的兵力比 真的只需动用非常少量的军队!这几位所谓的专家应该都是女性!—没有男子汉的气质与胆量!特别是体现在思维方式上更是如如此 当然啦 拿这几位和毛泽东,邓小平去比较思维方式确实是太高看其人了.
– 21 minutes ago

This bunch of traitors is misleading the citizens! Stomp [them]!
这群汉奸又在误导国民。脚踩！！！
– 26 minutes ago

In reply to the previous comment:
Correct. 正确
– 13 minutes ago.

[A rather sophisticated comment - and too sophisticated for JR to grasp its first line (谁想打仗让谁上好了)]:

[...] A bunch of screaming and chattering lunatics. Do you know the cruelty of war?
谁想打仗让谁上好了,－群哇哇乱叫的疯子,知道战争的残酷吗?
– one hour ago

I can’t translate the replies to the latter comment, but neither of them appears to be friendly, but one of the three (possibly all the same person) writes:

In the past, territory was given away in exchange for peace, but in the end, there was still war. Cruelty? I would rather die than live without dignity, sovereignty is fought for, it’s not resistance with each passing day.
你就是一sb，以前用领土换和平还不是最后要打仗，残酷？情愿死也不要无尊严的活着，主权是打来的，不是天天抗议
– one hour ago.

____________

Related

» First School Lesson: Patriotic Essays, Sept 1, 2009
» Concerning Traitors, Aug 25, 2009
____________

Update/Related

» Orgasm is Easy, Rectified.Name, May 12, 2012

____________

Angry Citizens and Bad Religion

Scheiße, ich muss im Golf nach Hause fahren.

I don’t know who’s angrier. Is it those who wave cartoons of the prophet (Mohamed) around to make some Salafists explode – and to hurt the feelings of Muslims who may feel angry, saddened, or who won’t care (yes, that happens, too)? Or  is it the Salafists who are angrier?

Police people may be angry, too, because they have to bear the brunt of keeping idiots on both sides apart from each other – and to expose themselves to danger. Police people have more reasons to be angry than anyone else, in my view.

But I seem to understand that a free society can either live with Salafists who are handing out Korans, and with people who are waving Mohamed cartoons around, or it isn’t much of a free society after all.

Helmut Schmidt in Singapore

[Links within blockquotes aren't part of the original paragraphs - JR]

Helmut Schmidt, former German chancellor,

is in Singapore to tap [Singapore's former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's]  views on international affairs for a book that he is writing. The interview on Saturday lasted three hours, and two more interviews of similar length are scheduled over the next two days,

reports the Straits Times (Sunday Times).

Lianhe Zaobao (UDN, 联合早报, Singapore) points out that

in 2006, [Schmidt] published “Our Neighbor China”, explaining that Europe should maintain a friendly relationship with China, [a book] which caused wide-spread attention. In an interview, Schmidt once said that Lee Kuan Yew understood China better than he did. Lee Kuan Yew said at a Future China Global Forum banquet in July last year that besides China’s Deng Xiaoping and America’s former president Bill Clinton, Schmidt, too, was an outstanding leader.

____________

Related

» Helmut Schmidt and the Korean War, March 1, 2012
» A Division of Labor that can’t work, Febr 23, 2010

____________

“None of my Business – I will Endure” – Readers’ Comments on Shan Renping’s Chen Guangcheng Editorial

Shan Renping‘s article here.

Some of the latest comments (probably continuously censored, and there are no permalinks):

You’d better issue fewer of these articles! Otherwise, you will be submerged in a flood of indignation!! (这些文章今后还是少发！不然会被叫骂声淹没！！)

-

When it is your fate to choose between rape and gang rape, how will you choose? (当你的命运注定要在被强奸和被轮奸之中选择的话，那么你的答案是什么？)

-

The family-planning issue probably exists in reality. I’m from Rizhao, Juxian, which formerly belonged to Linyi County [corretion: City]. You can also have a look at Zhaoxian Town in Rizhao. There are no residential areas here, except for a housing district of the family-planning office. Some of the area consists of police stations, who help the family-planning office to take people into custody.  The family-planning office will take relatives of pregnant women with more than one child, or unplanned pregnancies, to a village here called Xiao Pu, to lock them up there and to attend classes. (事件中的计生问题应该是真的，我是日照莒县的，原先属于临沂。你可也去我们莒县招贤镇看看。我们镇没有什么住宅小区，除了一个是计生办的住宅小区。计生办小区有一部分是派出所的，因为派出所的帮助计生办的抓人。计生办会把超生或计划外怀孕的亲戚抓到我们一个叫小铺的村关起来，美其名曰学习班—)

-

That’s none of my business. I will take care of my own business, and endure. (不关我我的事，关我的事时我忍).

-

Provide more news that reveal negative aspects about America – that will be believable and cause no disgust, because China is also powerful!!! (多多揭露美国的负面新闻, 现在报道都会相信的不反感, 因为中国也强大了!!!)

-

Great writing style! (文笔不错嘛！)

-

Is there not a single person on this globe who would oppose America??? (全世界, 没有一个人反对美国???)

“Huanqiu Shibao [the paper which published Shan's article] is truthful” (环球真实。), writes one commenter, somewhere in between, and “五毛拿好” (take your fifty cents) writes another.

Links within blockquote added during translation.

____________

Related

When the Heavens won’t Respond, Nov 11, 2011

____________

Huanqiu Shibao on Chen Guangcheng: “The Rise of China is the World’s Rich and Colorful Stage”

In an article of May 3, 10:22 local time, Shan Renping (单仁平) of Huanqiu Shibao (“Global Times”) describes Chen Guangcheng as a man who seemed to like his “policial super-role” (超级角色) very much. “Some Western forces” had taken “unusual ways of interfering, and Western public opinion and “some Chinese activists on the internet” had turned Chen into a human-rights brand. In fact, however, ordinary people had to cooperate with the big political powers who made their [own] arrangements.

Chen’s supporters had had a much clearer picture of that than Chen himself, and had hyped his case from an individual grassroot issue into a “microcosm” [literally: miniature, 缩影] of China as a country.

Some Western forces and their supporters in China will always need tools to struggle with China’s current political system, and “luck” and “disaster” become the matter of those who serve as tools. Everything can be distorted and labeled. Such a tool will not be lonely and may enjoy other benefits, too. Of course, if they go too far, they will pay the price.
西方一些力量和他们在中国的支持者们永远需要与中国现行政治体制做斗争的工具，“有幸”或“不幸”成为这个工具的人和事，都会变形，被标签化。做这样的工具，可以不寂寞，也会有其他利益。当然如果他们做过了头，也会付出代价。

Chen was just a very small case on Chinese society’s road ahead, and wouldn’t hurt stability in China, or the Chinese cause of human rights to develop further in a normal way. If they should experience “such a matter” again, China’s officials could be absolutely somewhat more at ease (以后遇到这样的事，中国官方完全可以更坦然些). “Some groups on the microblogs” who “warmed themselves at the fire” were on the fringe and did not represent the attitude of Chinese society.

Western public opinion was often looking for a crop in China, to inflate and exaggerate things. Chen Guangcheng and his supporters on the one hand, and Western public opinion, had benefitted each other this time, to blacken China’s ways.

Shan Renping advises the U.S. embassy to work “in accordance with its functions”, to distance itself from inappropriate activities, and to focus on garnering positive feelings among Chinese mainstream society, rather than act as a support for Chinese extremists.

Can the Chen Guangcheng case subside now? Hopefully. But there are some people inside and outside China who don’t want that. In that case, we will see some more quixotic pipedreams. The rise of China is also the world’s rich and colorful stage.
陈光诚的事情会就此平息吗？希望是。但中国国内和国外都有一些人未必愿意。那就让我们多看一些堂吉诃德式的妄想症好了。中国的崛起也是世间丰富多彩的舞台。

____________

Update/Related

» None of my Business – Readers’ comments, May 3, 2012

____________

Huanqiu / Xinhua Chen Guangcheng Notice

-

Chen Guangcheng leaves voluntarily, six days after entering U.S. Embassy

陈光诚进入美驻华使馆停留6天后自行离开

-

Xinhua, May 2, 2012, 15:41 – It is said that Shandong Province Yinan County’s Chen Guangcheng entered the American embassy in China in the last third of April and voluntarily left there after six days.

新华社北京5月2日电据了解，山东省沂南县人陈光诚于4月下旬进入美国驻华使馆停留6天后自行离开。(完)

Sovereign Debt Crisis, hence no Conflicts of Interest

Huanqiu Shibao, April 23

French Pesidential Nominees play the China Card, Sarkozy says he Pays Close Attention to Tibetan Issue  (法总统竞选打出中国牌 萨科齐称关注西藏问题)

From our France, Germany, Britain, U.S., Russia correspondents

Huanqiu Shibao reports that an anti-Chinese overseas exile Tibetan website reported on April 21 that during the April 22 presidential elections, Dalai supporters and French paper “Nouvel Observateur” addressed the Tibetan issue. From ten nominees, nine affirmed that they would meet with the Dalai. The report says that Sarkozy told the “Nouvel Observateur that “he frequently addressed the Tibet issue in talks with Chinese leaders”, and that “Tibet is an important topic for the French people, and for me”. Hollande said that the Dalai was a “respected religious personality, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and he abandoned all political roles. Therefore, I have no reason to refuse a meeting with him”.

据4月23日出版的《环球时报》报道，一家海外流亡藏人反华网站21日报道称，法国22日迎来第一轮总统大选，达赖支持者和法国《新观察家报》提出有关西藏问题。10个竞选人有9个证实，他们将会见达赖。报道称，萨科齐对《新观察家报》表示，他经常“向中国领导人提起西藏问题”，还称：“西藏对法国人民和我本人来说是一个重要议题。”奥朗德声称，达赖是一个“受尊敬的宗教人物，诺贝尔奖得主，他已放弃任何政治角色。所以，我没有理由拒绝与其会面。”

A Chinese person living abroad told “Huanqiu Shibao” on April 22 that some countries in Europe have not abandoned “democratic” etc. issues as means of pressure on China, and provocative intentions. However, under the current difficult economic difficulties, some comparatively reasonable politicians could exercise some restraint. China’s tough stance could leave some politicians with no choice but to face the realities. If they were provocative, they would certainly have to pay a price.

一名旅居欧洲的华人22日对《环球时报》说，欧洲一些国家没有放弃在“民主”等问题上对中国施压、挑衅的意图，不过，在当前经济困窘的情况下，一些相对理性的政客可能会选择克制。从之前的事件来看，中国展示强硬立场会让一些政客不得不面对现实，他们如果挑衅，肯定得付出代价。

Beijing Normal University Political Science and International Relations department deputy director Zhang Shengjun told “Huanqiu Shibao” that these presidential elections wouldn’t change French China policies on the whole. Chinese-French relations didn’t show great conflicts of interests, and all of Europe was actively seeking cooperation with China to solve the European sovereign debt crisis.

北京师范大学政治学与国际关系学院副院长张胜军对《环球时报》说，这次总统选举的结果整体上不会改变法国对华政策。中法之间没有较大的利益冲突，整个欧洲都在解决欧债危机上积极与中国寻求合作。

-

Le Nouvel Observateur, April 17, 2012

Dalai Lama – what the Candidates say (Ce qu’en disent les candidats)

Question five: Once you are president, will you receive the Dalai Lama? (Question n°5 : Une fois Président, recevrez-vous le dalaï-lama ?)

Nicolas Sarkozy:

I remind you that I’m the only president of the French Republic who talked with the Dalai Lama. That was in 2008. I also had the opportunity on several other occasions to talk about the Tibetan situation with the Chinese president. Of course, I intend to continue doing so. Tibet is an important topic for the French, just as for me. As far as the Dalai Lama is concerned, as a matter of principle, I’m not forbidding myself anything.

“Je vous rappelle que je suis le seul Président de la République française à m’être entretenu avec le dalaï-lama. C’était en 2008. J’ai par ailleurs eu à plusieurs reprises l’occasion de parler de la situation du Tibet avec le Président chinois. Mon intention est bien sûr de continuer à le faire. Le Tibet est un sujet important pour les Français, comme pour moi. S’agissant du dalaï-lama, par principe, je ne m’interdis rien.”

Francois Hollande:

The Dalai Lama is a respected religious personality, and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He has abandoned all political functions. I have no reason to refuse meeting him a priori. This will, of course, depend on the context of the appropriate time.

“Le dalaï-lama est une personnalité religieuse respectée, prix Nobel de la paix. Il a abandonné toute fonction politique. Je n’ai pas de raison de refuser a priori de le rencontrer. Cela dépendra évidemment du contexte le moment venu.”

Francois Bayrou:

If the Dalai Lama wishes to meet me, I will receive him, of course.

“Si le dalaï-lama souhaite me rencontrer je le recevrai naturellement.”

[...]

____________

Related

The Patriotic Road Abroad, August 15, 2009

____________

Old Friends of the Chinese People in Hanover: Wen’s Wonder Weapon

Angela Merkel and Wen Jiabao opened the Hannover Messe (Hanover Fair) last Sunday (April 22).

Wen Jiabao and the Three Chancellors, Neue Presse, Hanover

Wen Jiabao would stay at Kastens Hotel Luisenhof, Hanover’s Neue Presse informed its readers on April 21 (Saturday). There, he would also receive former chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schröder. Neither of the two had to travel very far – Schmidt lives in Hamburg, and Hanover is Schröder’s home town.

The way the Neue Presse presented the Dreikanzlertreffen (Merkel, Schröder, Schmidt) could have been designed by the Chinese propaganda department itself – but no worries, the coverage probably wasn’t even driven by business interests in the first place. Just as – I believe – Schmidt and Schröder (Merkel much less so), the German public in general is quite susceptible to flattery. When a foreign guest shows our old chanclellors (and Schmidt in particular) respect, he must be a good guy, basically.

Besides, if there is something like a (well-performing) soft-power Wunderwaffe for the CCP in Germany, it must be Helmut Schmidt. Less than three months before Wen’s Hanover visit, Schmidt had helped to inaugurate a series of “dialogs” about Chinese-German relations, in the framework of the China Cultural Year 2012, and didn’t shrink from any platitude (“the West must learn to understand today’s China” and “you can’t understand it without knowing China’s past”), any detail (Zheng He’s junks sailed under lateens), or any adulation (“China’s capability to conquer other states and to subordinate was there, but it wasn’t used or misused”). He mentioned Chinese problems, too – pretty much the way Wen Jiabao would describe them, too.

The Wen-Schmidt meeting, Xinhua/People’s Daily (English) covererage suggests, appeared to have the characteristics of a meeting between active statesmen.

I’m not too familiar with Edward Heath, and even if a certain Bruce Anderson – himself no credible man in every field – is right, I still wouldn’t put Schmidt into Heath’s league of useful idiocy^*) – a term that struck a chord with me when I heard it on the BBC:

I’m afraid Edward Heath had a monstrous bladder of vanity. He liked going to China, because in China, he was treated not barely as a head of government; he was ratcheted as a head of state. He was treated with flattery, [presumptuousness], as if he was still in power, as if he was a great man. And I’m afraid he doesn’t come out well from this episode. All his critical faculties were overwhelmed. As long as they patted his tummy, he was prepared to roll over like a pet Panda.

Even if Chinese public diplomacy doesn’t work too well on the German public yet, Beijing does have a strong asset in place in this country. The Neue Presse frontpage of last week bears testimony to that. Schmidt may not roll over like a pet Panda – but he is doing a great job anyway.

____________

Note

^*) John Sweeney, “Useful Idiots”, BBC, first broadcast on August 11, 2010
Downloads here »

____________

Related

» Message to a Barbarian, June 26, 2011
» Industriousness and Wisdom, January 9, 2011

____________