Asia-Pacific, Economy & Trade, Headlines, Human Rights

CHINA: Simmering Issues Boiling Up in Run-up to Obama Visit

Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Nov 13 2009 (IPS) - His victory speech is a smash hit on Internet sites; his image vies for popularity with those of communist China’s founding father Mao Zedong, and his book is a runway bestseller in this country’s big cities. But as China prepares to welcome him as the first black president of the United States, keen anticipation is mixed with unease.

Hosting a U.S. president from the democratic camp—and one that has already stirred sentiments with his trade protectionist measures—worries China’s officialdom. But dissidents and rights activists are equally apprehensive, because since his election, Barack Obama has shunned direct condemnation of China’s rights record and kept silent over evidence of persistent violations of freedom.

On the whole, experts here believe that Obama’s weeklong Asia trip, which will take him to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea, is about reclaiming leadership in the region. But many read this mission also as an attempt to keep China’s rise in check.

“The truth is that Washington expects China to help it fight the current economic crisis and ultimately maintain the existing global order dominated by the U.S. Should China refuse to do that, then we will be seen as ‘irresponsible’ and cast as the force that undermines that order,” said Yuan Shan, researcher on politics and public management at Wuhan university.

When the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg recently described the future of U.S.-China relations in terms of “strategic reassurance,” analysts here saw shades of caution and mistrust.

Just as the U.S. and its allies must make clear that they “are prepared to welcome China’s ‘arrival’ … as a prosperous and successful power,” said Steinberg, “China must reassure the rest of the world that its development and growing global role will not come at the expense of security and well- being of others.”

“Reassurance is a two-way street,” argued Fu Mengzi, researcher with the Beijing-based think tank, Institute of Contemporary International Relations. “The new concept is based on the aspirations of both countries to build mutual trust,” Fu wrote in the English-language newspaper ‘China Daily’, “but its creation demonstrates exactly the lack of such trust”.

Obama himself has been candid about the challenges of the Asia journey, anticipating resistance to his calls for redressing global economic balances— blamed in the U.S. largely on China.

On the eve of his China maiden trip, Obama warned that “enormous stains” would be placed on U.S.-Chinese relations if the two nations failed to tackle simmering trade tensions during his visit. Questions that need addressing include China’s export-driven economic model and the value of its currency, which is believed to have contributed to the world economic crisis.

“If we don’t solve some of these problems, then I think both economically and politically it will put enormous strains on the relationship,” he said. But China has preempted some of the forthcoming criticism by defending its crisis management and hitting back at the United States for its trade protectionism.

Speaking on Friday at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore, Chinese President Hu Jintao said his country was working hard to increase domestic demand, and these efforts were conducive to the international effort to lessen the effects of the crisis and restore world economic growth.

At the meeting, which was also attended by the U.S. president, Hu called on Asia-Pacific economies to continue with trade liberalisation and oppose any form of protectionism. This call follows recent charges by China’s Ministry of Commerce that the U.S. was adhering to “double standards” in trade.

China and the United States have engaged in a record number of trade disputes this year. Countering punitive U.S. trade tariffs on Chinese tyres and steel pipes, Beijing has launched investigations into U.S. poultry exports. Many U.S. politicians believe artificially cheap Chinese imports are the reason for the loss of thousands of American jobs.

But Obama is sure to court China’s cooperation on a range of pressing global issues—from climate change to economic recovery and nuclear non- proliferation. “It is very hard to see how we succeed or how China succeeds in our prospective goals without working together,” Obama said ahead of his trip. “And that is, I think, the purpose of the strategic partnership and that is why this trip to China is so important”.

Many Chinese political activists have been waiting to see whether Obama will dare to upset his hosts and endanger the all-important partnership by taking a stand on human rights during his visit.

“As the latest recipient of the Novel Peace Prize and the president of the greatest democratic country in the world, you have tremendous influence with the Chinese government and its people,” said a letter addressed to Obama by two Chinese dissidents, Yang Zili and Zhang Honghai, and sent to the U.S. embassy in Beijing.

Having served eight years in prison for forming a political study group to discuss democratic reform, Yang and Zhang are seeking Obama’s help in gaining medical parole for their two friends who remain in jail.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton disappointed activists in February when she refused to raise concerns on China’s rights during a trip to Beijing, saying she would not let human rights interfere with cooperation with Beijing on global crises. Instead of voicing condemnation of China’s rights record, the Obama administration has instead chosen a policy of reaching out to the middle class to advocate democratic values.

“The Chinese government is now betting that President Obama won’t raise human rights, while Chinese civil society activists, lawyers and peaceful critics —the kind of people with whom the President typically aligns himself—are fervently hoping he will,” Kenneth Roth, executive director of the New York- based Human Rights Watch, said in a statement

In the run-up to Obama’s China trip activists have stepped up campaigns to draw attention on the violations of the human rights of dissidents, lawyers and ordinary petitioners.

This week Human Rights Watch revealed the existence of a network of secret “black jails” in China for thousands of people who dare to complain about life under the communist regime.