Foreign Correspondence

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China takes 'peaceful rise' message abroad

Note:
Australia's behavior reminds one of unfriendly remarks made by Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer during his visit to Beijing in August, which seriously upset the Taiwanese public. In fact, Australia has gradually been changing its diplomatic strategy, shifting the focus from Europe to Asia ever since the mid-1990s. Apart from building relations with ASEAN, it also takes the improvement of Sino-Australian relations as an index, while China has become one of its major trade partners.

In light of the growing economic and trade relations between the two, as well as Canberra's status as an important US ally in the Asian region, Beijing can restrain the US-Australia alliance by luring over the latter and preventing it from interfering if a war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait.

Moreover, through Australia's influence over the countries of Oceania, China can prevent Taiwan from extending its reach in the region. Beijing purposely appointed Fu Ying -- a former director-general of the Department of Asian Affairs under the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs -- as ambassador to Australia in March.
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-Am


China takes 'peaceful rise' message abroad


Correspondents Report - Sunday, 29 May , 2005
Reporter: Graeme Dobell
HAMISH ROBERTSON: China's top legislator, Wu Bangguo, was in Australia last week as part of a 15-day tour through the region, also visiting Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand.

The visit by the head of the National People's Congress is another example of the visit diplomacy now being used by Beijing in Asia and the Pacific in support of what China calls its peaceful rise.

That rise, of course, is drawing a whole range of responses throughout the Asia Pacific region. Here to look at some of those responses, from Japan, the United States and Australia, is our Foreign Affairs Correspondent Graeme Dobell.

GRAEME DOBELL: In a conference room in Washington the other day, the Australian Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State nailed another piece to a growing structure – what the academic gurus call "the emerging architecture of East Asia".

Condoleezza Rice and Alexander Downer announced that the tri-lateral security dialogue between the US, Australian and Japan, currently conducted by senior officials, will be lifted to their level.

That is, the creation of a regular, three-way strategic dialogue between the foreign ministers of Japan and Australia and the US Secretary of State, probably held on the sidelines at other, bigger annual gatherings, such as APEC, ASEAN or at the United Nations.

The tri-lateral dialogue puts in the third leg of the triangle between two bi-lateral alliances in East Asia, with Japan and Australia. When the then US Secretary of State Colin Powell first floated the tri-lateral idea in July 2001, Alexander Downer leaped in to say it'd be and informal dialogue, not the creation of an East Asian NATO.

That denial of any NATO style alliance was perhaps the most interesting element in the birth of the Japan-Australia-US dialogue. In diplomacy, denials are interesting currency.

Bearing in mind eye of stone's dictum about governments – believe nothing until it's been officially denied. Or Henry Kissinger's dictum, that when a country denies its intention to do something, it is telling other countries that it does have the capacity to do that thing if it so decides.

The invisible participant in this new bit of regional architecture is of course, China. When it's being polite, China calls the US alliance system in Asia, old thinking. When it's being rude, China talks about Japan and Australia as the north and south claws of the US containment strategy.

While stating the obvious that the rise of China is reshaping our world, Canberra is also becoming quite explicit about its special regard for Japan as, quote, "a strategic partner". Unlike Beijing, vehement in its opposition, Canberra is a staunch supporter of the idea that Japan should have a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

And the Prime Minister John Howard talks about the US, Japan and Australia as the three great Pacific democracies, with the tri-lateral security dialogue adding a new dimension to the value the three countries place on their alliance relationships.

This adds a distinctly different element to the line unveiled by the Foreign Minister in Beijing last August, when Alexander Downer argued that under the ANZUS alliance with the US, Australia is not bound automatically to enter any hypothetical conflict between China and the US over Taiwan.

The formal alliance obligation, of course, is to consult. And increasingly it seems, that consultation will be more than just Washington-Canberra – but with that third Tokyo league. It's about the rise and rise of China, but it's also about the way that Japan seeks to reinvent itself – to use its own term – as "a normal country".

For much of the last 50 years when Australia was talking about China, often it was really talking about the United States. The biggest example of this – Australia's refusal to give diplomatic recognition to the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1972. As the official documents of the period make clear, this non-recognition was more about Australia's alliance with the United States than it was about China.

The reverse of this increasingly, is that now when Australia talks to the US or Japan, often it's really talking about China. And with luck, this dynamic will stretch far into the future, the longer the better, with plenty of questions, and we hope, only the vaguest final answers.

HAMISH ROBERTSON: That report by our Foreign Affairs Correspondent Graeme Dobell.

http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2004/s1379062.htm