IF you wanted to write a textbook on how a nation should not conduct its foreign policy, all you would have to do is copy and paste Chinese actions in the last 65 years.
Soon after taking power in China, the government of Mao Zedong annexed Tibet in 1950. Granted that these two countries had been at war on and off for 1,000 years, Tibet offered little to China except the opportunity to kill around 500,000 Tibetans. Further, India and China fought border wars in the area and pushed India to side with the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Mao also supported the North Koreans, sending in troops to fight against the US-led United Nations forces. While advancing Chinese communism into one of the most godforsaken places on the planet, it created a nation that has become a dangerous, nuclear-armed thorn in the neck for China and the
region, as well as the whole world.
China and the Soviet Union fought several major border wars and in the end, China lost about 1 million square kilometers of territory to Russia over the decades. Now these two countries are great friends as China needs
Russia’s oil and Russia needs China’s cash.
Japan and China are tied up in a territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands/Diaoyu Islands which had been uninhabited “navigational markers” for centuries. That means ships coming from the Western Pacific used the islands as a road sign—turn left for China; go right for Japan.
But China wants any place that might potentially hold even a drop of crude oil in spite of the fact that Japan is China’s largest foreign investor, directly or through Hong Kong companies.
The list of nations that China has not “annoyed” is small.
China had the opportunity to take Southeast Asia under its wing and away from the strong influence of the US. Thailand asked the US military to leave after the Vietnam War. Vietnam has its own negative history with the US as does the Philippines. Indonesia is still not happy with US interference in its affairs. While publically close allies, less than half of Malaysians view the US favorably. Only Singapore is firmly in the US camp due to its close economic interests.
The US has other more pressing foreign problems like the Middle East and the Ukraine to deal with. But China, with its typical policy wisdom, is forcing the Philippines and Vietnam in particular to strengthen relations with the US.
The more serious situation is this: like people who make irrational decisions that are not even in their own self-interest, very bad decisions can lead to very bad actions.
China has put the region on a potentially perilous path.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano
1 comment
Look at how bad the throngs of Chinese tourists are behaving in all corners of the world, and u won’t be surprised at how bad China conducts its foreign policy.