With China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S., many Americans
have been discussing whether China poses a threat to the world.
They have the right to be concerned. China’s recent acts include
island-building activities in the South China Sea and an Admiral’s
declaration that the South China Sea “belongs to China,” widespread,
non-stop cyber intrusions, a recent military parade that showcased
missiles with English writing on them such as “carrier killer” and “Guam
killer,” warships sailing into U.S. waters, and the arrest of over 200
human rights lawyers and activists inside China. In addition, China’s
slow economy has impacted the world’s stock market, China devalued its
currency, and many U.S. critics have commented on China’s stock market
intervention.
However, Chinese view things differently. To many Chinese, the things
about which the West is concerned do not seem to be Xi Jinping’s top
issues. Xi’s focus is his consolidation of power internally that has
been primarily done through his signature work, the anti-corruption
campaign. He has warned that this campaign has come to a critical point
and has vowed to carry it to the end “with no cap [on the rank of
tigers].”
When former leader Jiang Zemin transitioned power to Hu Jintao, Jiang
created a collective leadership structure. Power was shared among nine
politburo standing committee members, where Jiang’s faction had the
majority of seats. This effectively limited Hu’s power and gave Jiang
the upper hand, even though he had “retired.”
When Xi took power in late 2012, Jiang’s faction had three of the seven
politburo standing committee seats and still shared a lot of that
structure’s power. Xi started the anti-corruption campaign against his
opponents to get the power back.
By taking down Xu Caihou and Guo Boxiong, the two former Vice Chairmen
of the Central Military Commission, Xi worked to establish himself as
the real leader of the People’s Liberation Army. Xi’s next move in the
military is to continue the consolidation of power by restructuring the
military and cutting 300,000 from the military staff.
Xi also took over power from Zhou Yongkang, China’s former security
Tsar, now a fallen tiger. He is gradually moving into those fields that
others used to manage: propaganda, diplomacy, state-owned enterprises,
finance, and the economy.
Many Chinese political analysts think that Xi will be pre-occupied with
the internal political fight and will, in the short term, avoid
international confrontations.
However, that does not mean there is no threat from China. Xi’s
opponents in China may not be sitting in silence waiting to be taken
down as “tigers.” Jiang’s faction stirred up the Hong Kong “umbrella”
movement for Xi last year [1] [2]. There is speculation that the
free-fall of China’s stock market and the Tianjin explosion were also
man-made disasters [3] [4]. If this is true, it shows that some people
are willing to create trouble for Xi in order to embarrass him or have
him look like a failure. The continued effect on the Chinese people and
on the world may indeed be dramatic, or even devastating.
The decline of China’s economy will inevitably impact the world. China’s
currency devaluation and the promotion of the renminbi as a global
currency will also impact the world. Its “one belt, one road” strategy
may also change the diplomatic landscape in Asia and the Middle East.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established the “going abroad” strategy a few years ago.
It is gradually asserting its influence over the world. The incidents
mentioned seem indeed to pose an overt threat to the world.
Nonetheless, there is another growing threat to the world. Its
influence has often been both slow and subtle. In fact, it has been so
slow and so subtle that, like a frog placed in a pot of cold water that
is slowly heated and does not perceive the danger, the world has not
awakened to this aspect China’s influence: The CCP is quietly and
unnoticeably changing the world’s values.
The West, especially the U.S., has long believed in and stood up for
democracy and universal values. It sees its responsibility as and takes
great pride in defending man’s inalienable rights. When dealing with
China, however, it seems that the West has gradually accepted two
fallacies that the CCP has established:
1. For China, the most important human rights issue is to feed the
people (in other words, ignore other human rights violations).
2. China’s human rights issues are China’s internal affair.
As a result, when over 200 Tibetans set themselves on fire over a two year period to protest
the CCP’s religious suppression; when Falun Gong practitioners reported
hundreds of thousands of cases of mistreatment and even large scale live
organ harvesting; when many Chinese have nowhere to go to report
injustice such as forced-demolition, official’s abuse of power, and
environmental pollution, and are even arrested when they try; the West
has, for the most part, stayed quiet.
The CCP is exporting its value system to the world. It helped Iran build
its own firewall for Internet censorship, it has promoted the “China
model” as a superior replacement over the
free market, it denied American professor Elliot Sperling’s visit to
China because of his vocal support of his Uighur colleague, Ilham Tohti,
and it has influenced the world to isolate people that it does not
like, including the Dalai Lama and Cheng Guangcheng.
So, does China pose a threat to the world? It is time to take a broader look.