China, the Bully

By: Joe Mauricio

 

When I left the Philippines in 1959 for America, China was a soft power, militarily and economically. They were depicting policymakers that were respectful of other’s opinions, willing to listen, humble to a fault, and very reluctant to dispense unsolicited advice, a country that was content to allow its own example of successes to speak for itself.

Today, China, like any super-power, is allowing its internal political battles to shape how it interacts with the rest of the world. Neighbors like the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and even Japan, whose sensitivities China seems entirely willing to ignore, China’s historical experience exerts a powerful force on its contemporary behavior.

China’s legacy is different, neighbors have not been equals, so much as tributary states. Alliances have been conceived as representing little more than a calculation that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Is Asia’s Bully disrespectful of others’ opinions, let alone their interests? Nowhere is this more evident than with the countries surrounding the South China Sea, the lifeblood of maritime Southeast Asia.

China seeks to turn the South China Sea into southern Chinese lake and has included sovereignty over disputed group of atolls and inlets. It even established an air defense identification zone and introduced a notification system for fishing. China’s assertions of territorial claims, no one is buying, etc., portrayed of these moves as safety procedures, rather seem to be part of a cynical exercise in “salami tactics,” gaining de facto sovereignty over disputed territories, one slice at a time.

Unless China improves its relations with its neighbors, its international image will continue to take a beating. It could start with a more respectful attitude towards ASEAN members– Chinese leaders’ insistence on bilateral negotiations with ASEAN members, rather than with the bloc as a whole, has done nothing but fuel anxiety and resentment in the area.