The new Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, days before his appointment as Minister, wrote an article entitled: How China Sees the World. It is interesting in what it says and what it does not. Deserves careful scrutiny from both China and non-China watchers!
On relations with the US, he quotes the Chinese leader Xi Jinping to make the same point that former PM Manmohan Singh used to make with regard to India and China i.e. the world (PM Singh said Asia) is big enough for the two countries to develop themselves and prosper together. He goes on to say that China and the US now share more common interests, not less. My personal interpretation is that this is a clear olive branch to the one power that China considers its equal, namely the US. Whether it is a tactical move to gain time or a strategic shift, only time will tell.
China’s economic development is a force for peace and is not a growing power to break the status quo, Qin argues. He squarely blames the Taiwan separatists for creating tension in the Taiwan Strait by challenging the status quo of “one China”. In East China Sea, he accuses Japan which attempted to “nationalize” Diaoyu Dao (Senkaku Islands) ten years ago thus altering the status quo. In the South China sea, the status quo is that regional countries are consulting on a code of conduct. He avoided mentioning that this has been going on for some 20 years, mainly because of foot dragging by China.
As to the border issues between China and India, Qin says nonchalantly that the status quo is that both sides are willing to ease the situation and jointly protect peace along their borders. This statement sounds both innocuous and ominous at the same time!
Qin Gang’s statement on Ukraine is noteworthy. He says conflicts do not produce winners, there is no simple solution to a complex issue and confrontation between major countries (read US and Russia) must be avoided. He calls for talks between US, EU, NATO and Russia and then goes on to intriguingly suggest that in the long term, people must realize that grounding one’s own security on other countries’ insecurity won’t work. If that sounds like implicit criticism of NATO and the West, then it is!
Finally, he urges people not to choose to see the world from a “democracy vs. authoritarianism” perspective. I understand this since China does hate binary choices.
Qin Gang’s article, for me, is something in the nature of a Chinese white paper on foreign policy for the year 2023. I am having trouble though in deciphering whether this is Wolf Warrior 2.0 or is it something else altogether? We will see soon enough.
Diplomacy and Geopolitics 