【09.11.14新闻周刊】On the eve of Obama's visit, China reveals an identity crisis.

和解团结

【原文链接】http://www.newsweek.com/id/222844
【作者】Melinda Liu
【日期】2009年11月14日
【原文】
Which China will receive President Barack Obama on his first trip toAsia—the China of growing influence (and foreign-exchange reserves) orthe one that acts like an accidental superpower? Obama will bedelivering a fairly straightforward message that the two countries mustwork together to tackle global—and not just bilateral—problems.Washington wants Beijing to assume more responsibility and leadershipon everything from the global economic recovery to climate change tononproliferation to regional-security headaches.


But not all of Beijing's leaders are interested. "China doesn't want tolead the world—it doesn't even want to be seen as a leader of thedeveloping world," says Brookings Sinologist David Shambaugh, whocurrently lives in Beijing. "The result is that Beijing has multiplepersonas. It's asking 'what kind of power are we?' "

For its part, the United States has been watching its own leadershiptested in the region. In the shadow of China's rise, American clout inthe Pacific also declined markedly under George W. Bush's presidency.The dysfunctional new power dynamic—neither party wants to take a backseat for the other but neither wants to seem presumptuous and giveoffense—is painfully evident as both sides ponder unpalatable optionsin Afghanistan. Aside from being a quagmire for the U.S. and NATO, thewar threatens to bleed over a common border into China and inflameMuslim unrest in the western region of Xinjiang, where Uighur riotstook place this summer.、

Still, Washington is clear on what it wants. Even as American officialsfeud internally over how many more troops to send to Kabul or evenwhether the Afghan government is a reliable partner, they're eager forChina to stop free-riding and show more leadership in its own part ofthe world. Shambaugh thinks China's armed police should train Afghancops, for example. But Beijing shuns anything close to putting boots onthe ground. "Every foreign power that goes in has failed—so why shouldChina join the list of failures?" as Tsinghua University foreign-policyexpert Yan Xuetong says. One Chinese Netizen put it more tartly in achatroom posting: "Now NATO wants China to help wipe it's ass."

The United States and China are also the world's biggest carbonemitters, and as the ambassador to Beijing Jon Huntsman says, "If ourtwo countries can't get our acts together to combat climate change,nobody else will." Yet Beijing authorities want Washington to bankrolla big chunk of China's anti-pollution technology upgrades, arguing thatthe United States and other developed countries have thisresponsibility since they've been belching emissions for a century.

Within Chinese government circles, explains Shambaugh, there is anescalating debate over whether the country should assume the role of a"responsible big power" or just continue practicing the late Chinesestrongman Deng Xiaoping's more veiled and ambiguous strategy of "bidingtime, hiding capabilities, but doing some things." Skeptics in theBeijing leadership believe China simply isn't ready to take on muchgreater global responsibilities—and yet "some people want Beijing tooverextend itself precisely so that Chinese growth will be stifled,"says Professor Yan. "China is terribly conflicted internally over thisissue," Shambaugh says, quipping that when Chinese and American leadersmeet next week "maybe there should be a third chair for a psychiatristto analyze these two psychologically wounded, ambivalent, schizophreniccountries."

To be sure, there's much that the world wants to see Washington andBeijing handle together—especially on the global economic recovery(which requires China to keep buying U.S. Treasury bills) and ongrappling with a recalcitrant North Korea. Recognizing that gives themevery incentive to whitewash simmering trade disputes over tires,disagreements over the value of each other's currencies, and thefailure to agree on how developed and developing countries shouldtackle global climate change. Such differences will be discussed duringObama's visit, even though nobody expects breakthroughs.

But while they agree they really have to get along, there are stillmajor cultural problems keeping them apart. One perennial thorn is thatChina seeks symbols—a state banquet unmarred by pesky protests, aperfect Great Wall photo op—while America often focuses on substantive"deliverables." So even as Air Force One took off for Japan, the firststop in Obama's Asian overture, American and Chinese authorities werestill scrambling to hammer out details of his China visit.

The high point of Obama's China visit, for example, is meant to be a"town hall" meeting with young Chinese in Shanghai—and his aides wantit to be broadcast live on Chinese TV and streamed live over theInternet. But Beijing remains nervous about unscripted interactionswith ordinary Chinese; the last-minute haggling underscored Beijing'sjitters about the issues of freedom of speech and human rights thatObama's team intends to raise. Thursday, State Department officialsbriefed a number of mostly Chinese bloggers in Beijing, Shanghai, andGuangzhou in an attempt to mobilize the social-media tools that Obamaused so successfully to communicate with American voters. The irony ofthe situation wasn't lost on the bloggers, who asked if Chinese wouldbe able to access news of Obama's visit on Twitter or Facebook, whichremain blocked by the Great Firewall of China.

Another telling detail, as Beijing prepared for the state visit, wasthe sudden appearance of fast-selling T shirts emblazoned with Obama'sface topped with a Mao-style green cloth cap. Then, just as swiftly,municipal authorities descended on souvenir shops to confiscate the "Maobama"shirts, apparently worried they might offend American sensibilities.Attendants at one shop in a popular tourist district of Beijing toldthe "T shirt police" that they were not selling the Maobama souvenirs.Perhaps simply wanting to be seen to be doing something—anything—theauthorities instead carted off T shirts featuring Mao Zedong himself.

One reason for all the paranoia is that, at heart, the countries stilldon't totally understand each other. China's hamfisted style ofone-party rule remains at odds with American democracy: "It lies at theheart of the distrust between these two countries," says Minxin Pei, aChina expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

So at the same time that China remains uncomfortable with its new role(but craves recognition of its rise), the United States needs real helpovercoming global challenges but doesn't want to give offense. Analyzethat!

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