A Chinese Puzzle - Dr. Steve Elwart - www.khouse.org
An Enigma
In a radio broadcast in October 1939, Winston Churchill said, "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest."
The same could be said of China. It is also an enigma. One the one hand, China wants to be part of the world community. It is reaching out in promoting peace efforts in the Middle East, negotiating with Iran to move it from being a pariah among nations to an acceptable partner with the West. At the same time, it is making aggressive non-peaceful moves against its neighbors: with Taiwan on its home waters, with Japan on some disputed islands in the South China Sea, with Vietnam on natural resources both claim off Hanoi's coast.
The Key
Their key lies in their past. China is one of the world's four ancient civilizations. Its history encompasses more than 5000 years of Chinese history, including the Great Wall. The written history of China can be said to date back to the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), over 3,000 years ago. The first dynasty was founded in the 21st century B.C., and China was first unified in 221 B.C.
China can also lay claim to four great inventions of ancient China: papermaking, gunpowder, printing techniques and the compass. Those inventions were first attributed to China by British sinologist Dr Joseph Needham (1900-1995), which was later widely accepted by Chinese historians. These inventions of ancient China enormously promoted the development of China's economy, politics and culture, which were introduced to the Western countries through various channels and had a substantial influence on world civilization.
Exploration
It was only after a long and expensive period of exploration around the world did China retreat into itself. Chinese sailors traversed the world from 2 B.C. until the 15th century AD. It travelled from China to India and Europe and there is evidence to suggest that China also explored both North and South America before Columbus came across the continents.
Their final foray out into the world came over 100 years before Martin Luther nailed his Ninety Five Theses on the church door at Wittenburg. Between 1405 and 1433, Ming China sent out seven gigantic naval expeditions under the command of Zheng He, the great eunuch admiral (Note: a eunuch didn't necessarily mean a man who was castrated, though that could have been the case. A Eunuch also was a title given to a man high office and trust of the emperor.). These expeditions traveled along the Indian Ocean trade routes as far as Arabia and the coast of East Africa. The Ming admiral and his treasure fleet were not engaged in a voyage of exploration, for one simple reason: the Chinese already knew about the ports and countries around the Indian Ocean. In fact, both Zheng He's father and grandfather used the honorific hajji, an indication that they had performed their ritual pilgrimage to Mecca, on the Arabian Peninsula. Zheng He was not sailing off into the unknown.
The voyages of the Treasure Fleet were meant to display Chinese might to all the kingdoms and trade ports of the Indian Ocean world, and to bring back exotic toys and novelties for the emperor. In other words, Zheng He's enormous junks were intended to shock and awe other Asian principalities into offering tribute to the Ming.
However, in 1433, the emperor called off the expeditions, due to their enormous expense and called the fleet back. Having almost bankrupted the treasury and subsequently causing civil unrest, the Hongle Emperor burned the treasure ships on their return and forbade anyone from undertaking another voyage. From that point until 1842, China retreated into itself and had almost no contact with the outside world.
It is tempting to imagine what if the Chinese had continued to patrol the Indian Ocean? What if Vasco da Gama's four little Portuguese caravels had run into a stupendous fleet of more than 250 Chinese junks of various sizes, but all of them larger than the Portuguese flagship? How would world history have been different, if Ming China had ruled the waves in 1497-98?
A Long Memory
China closed it borders to the West, but there still was some trade. While China bought nothing from the West, Chinese goods, particularly silk, spices and tea were in high demand in European countries. The market for Western goods in China was virtually non-existent.
British diplomat George Macartney's 1793 mission to Beijing brought with him a "very extensive selection of specimens of all the articles we make both for ornament and use." By displaying such a selection to the emperor, court and people, Macartney's embassy would learn what the Chinese wanted.
The emperor accepted Macartney's gifts, and quite liked some of them, but saw the trade expedition as one of tribute, not trade. The imperial court saw a visit from the representatives of King George as something similar in kind to the opportunities the emperor's Ministry of Rituals provided for envoys from Korea and Vietnam to express their respect and devotion to the Ruler of All Under Heaven. The emperor could never conceive the suggestion that the Son of Heaven and King George were equals.
One product the British did perceive the Chinese consumers did want; highly addictive opium. While this too was banned by the Emperor, smuggling of the drug was rampant. The number of opium addicts increased, which greatly concerned successive emperors. This triggered what is known as the Opium Wars In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking-the first of what the Chinese later called the unequal treaties, opened five treaty ports, ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain and forcibly opened China to Western trade. The failure of the treaty to satisfy British goals of improved trade and diplomatic relations led to the Second Opium War (1856-60). The war is now considered in China as the beginning of modern Chinese history.
It also marked the period of Western dominance of the Middle Kingdom. This dominance lasted almost 100 years and ended with the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949. The revolution was the culmination of the Chinese Communist Party's drive to power since its founding in 1921.
A nation in a quandary
China is still a nation suspicious of outsiders, especially the West. At the same time though, they want certain deference and the influence that befits their nation's stature and economic power. China wants the conditions that have helped it grow to remain in place, but at the same time it wants its place on the world's stage.
China's leadership is facing a contradiction; it is caught between change and continuity at home as it tries to keep its grip on a society which has transformed itself socially almost as fast as it has grown economically. This contradiction is made more dangerous by the fact that China has a belligerent form of nationalism and ruled over by men who respond to every perceived threat and slight with disproportionate defensiveness.
China is building airstrips on disputed islands in the South China Sea, moving oil rigs into disputed waters and redefining its airspace with the hope that the world will see these moves as an acknowledgement it sees as it's due.
This could make for a diplomatic crisis with its neighbors and the United States. Put together China's desire to join the ranks of the world powers and America's determination not to let that disrupt its national interests and makes for a rivalry that can prove to be very dangerous for everyone.
Shi Yinhong, of Renmin University in Beijing, one of China's most eminent foreign-policy commentators, says that, five years ago, he was sure that China could rise peacefully, as it says it wants to. Now, he says, he is not so sure.
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