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President Obama spoke to students at a Shanghai town hall
meeting on November 16th on a slew of topics
including collaboration, human rights, and internet
censorship. He offered pointed but measured answers to eager
and inquisitive students. Obama’s defense of free,
transparent information driven societies came as no
surprise. He stated: “These freedoms of expression and
worship, of access to information and political
participation, we believe are universal rights,” the
president said to an audience of 500 some university
students, handpicked and coached by Chinese officials. “They
should be available to all people.”
The Obama Administration’s
gentle provocation of Chinese censorship will stimulate
debate over the slated ‘universal rights.’ The approach will
most likely resonant amongst China’s web-savvy population,
but preserve cordial relations that may prove crucial to
American economic survival and cross-cultural education.
President Obama’s trip to
Asia struck a benign and conciliatory tone, which was an
attempt to restore America’s image abroad following the Iraq
War. The symbolic highlights have included the American
president bowing in greeting to the Emperor of Japan and
conversing with the Burmese military junta.
Obama’s open dialogue and
transparency with foreign nations, specifically China, has
been pegged as conciliatory or soft. “I don’t find the
critics credible,” refuted Obama in a Reuters interview. “If
you look at my statements, they have been entirely
consistent. We believe in the values of freedom of speech,
freedom of press, freedom of religion, that are not just
core American values but we believe are universal values.”
The President had already
touched on the respective criticisms of hypocrisy and
inadequacy in his town-hall talks. He admitted to America’s
imperfections and stressed the need for socio-political
dialogue between the two nations. China’s emergence as the
world’s third largest economy and the greatest foreign
holder of U.S. debt bore heavily on Obama’s mind. China’s
pattern of undaunted censorship is an issue that demands a
steady hand and sensitive diplomacy.
Jeffrey Bader, National
Security Council Director for East Asian affairs,
reassuringly stated that Obama would raise “issues of
freedom of expression, access to information, freedom of
religion, rule of law and certainly Tibet” in his meetings
with Chinese President Hu Jintao. The immediacy of human
rights concerns such as Chinese arms sales to Sudan and the
crackdown of the Urumqi and Tibet protests were left
unaddressed. Obama made no effort to discuss these
contentious affairs during the town-hall meeting.
Obama seems conscious or
observant to the Chinese government’s cultural emphasis on
face.
There are three characters in the Chinese language which
equate to “face” (面, 臉, and 顏). The terms can be defined in
terms of “honor” or “prestige.”
According to anthropologist Hu Hsien-chin, the terms can be
further characterized as one’s mianzi (“reputation
achieved through… success and ostentation”) and lian
(“the confidence of society in the integrity of ego’s moral
character).
20th Century
Chinese writer Lu Xun characterized the sociological concept
as: “the face is the key to the Chinese spirit and that
grasping it will be like grabbing a queue twenty-four years
ago - everything else will follow.”
The Communist Party’s
preservation of face feeds directly into their fear of
undermined government control. The German state-funded
“Berlin Wall” Twitter page was blocked by Beijing following
numerous comments made calling for the fall of the “Great
Firewall of China”. A rush transcript of Obama’s town hall
comments were censored and the event itself was televised in
a restrictive manner. Obama has decided to work in a gradual
and incremental manner at concessions. He is constrained to
operating within the constraints or context of face.
Human rights groups had
protested Obama’s decision to delay his meeting with the
Dalai Lama. However, it was a move greeted with approval
from Beijing. The two sides agreed to continue to examine
the human rights issue and establish a human rights dialogue
next year. The fine line walked by Obama can be viewed as
idealism and pragmatism in politics.
It is also important to
note that America’s influence in China has diminished
slightly given domestic issues at home and the subsequent
weakened dollar. China holds the largest standing army in
the world and has established itself as the major financier
of the United States’ army. A recent figure belied the fact
that the U.S. owes China over $800 billion dollars in debt,
which equates to roughly 24% of U.S. Treasury Securities.
The White House is requesting $130 billion dollars in
addition to the $533.7 billion dollar defense budget set for
2010. The United States two wars will amount to $65 billion
for Afghanistan and $61 billion for Iraq in the current
fiscal year. The United States cannot afford to employ more
armed forces without suffering devastating consequences.
Washington Post
analysts Robert Kagan and Dan Blumenthal
argued in a Nov 9 op-ed article that the Obama
Administration’s new policy of “strategic reassurance” is
especially impossible in the face of China’s military
build-up and increased aid to Africa and South Asia (thus
extending its political influence).
The interdependent nature
of the two nations can be seen in China’s need for America’s
investors and service industry and America’s reliance on
China’s exports and trade surplus. Obama is hopeful of an
engaged partnership between the two nations in stating that
the notion that China and America “must be adversaries is
not predestined and that nations of varied ideologies can
prosper cooperatively.”
The difficulty includes
defining the notion of “universal values.” How does the
United States ascertain what are universal values when
criticizing China’s treatment of indigenous populations,
while actively engaged in militarized operations in the
Middle East?
Obama’s approach of
constructive and conciliatory dialogue will be a positive
start to the Sino-American relationship. The approach may
feasibly lead to the progressive acknowledgment of human
rights. The average Chinese consumer may be the suitable
remedy to quell a weakened global economy in the short run.
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