China - handle with care

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The emotional condemnation that followed the execution of Akmal Shaikh is exactly the wrong way to deal with the world's next superpower, says Malcolm Moore in Shanghai.

By Malcolm Moore
Published: 6:36AM GMT 04 Jan 2010

The reaction to Akmal Shaikh’s execution by the British government has been a fiasco that must have made diplomats in Beijing and Shanghai wince. From a British perspective, the outrage over Mr Shaikh’s execution may have seemed justified. China must improve its human-rights record if it wants to be a responsible player on the world stage. Executing a 53-year-old man of questionable sanity and burying him in an unmarked grave in a remote and icy cemetery in Urumqi appears unjust in our eyes. Bluntly ignoring Gordon Brown’s entreaties makes China seem cold and defiant.

But from a Chinese point of view, there was little to be done. A personality disorder or paranoia do not qualify as mental illness in the eyes of the court. And Britons in China must be subject to Chinese law

The fact that Mr Shaikh was the first European to be executed in China for half a century shows that, until now, China has often allowed foreigners to remain outside the law as it sought to curry favour with more powerful nations. But no longer.

“Today, when the British drug dealer violated the law on our land, we can openly and rightfully punish him without any mercy. We don’t need to follow the orders of others any more,” remarked one commenter on a Chinese web forum.

It may be 170 years since Britain subjected China to colonial humiliation during the Opium wars, but the memory of red-faced foreigners banging their fists on tables and telling the Chinese what to do is still keenly felt. Despite its apparent strength, the country remains incredibly sensitive to the way it is treated by foreign governments.

As it takes the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council this month, it is easy to forget that the country was a global pariah just two decades ago. After the massacre at Tiananmen Square, foreign governments cut off diplomatic ties with Beijing, imposed sanctions and snuffed out the early flickerings of the attempt to rejoin the world after decades of Maoist isolation.

Under Deng Xiaoping’s leadership, China had been opening up. The country’s unspoken support for the US had spurred the collapse of the Soviet Union. “China and the US had been sharing both geopolitical and military secrets,” recalls Gao Zhikai, Deng’s former translator. “Because of that co-operation, China was following a US line.” The US had even been selling China weapons, both Sikorsky helicopters and guidance systems for jet aircraft.

The events of 1989, however, turned China into a new target for the US as it searched for an ideological enemy in the post Cold War era, even if, in practice, Chinese communism was a world away from Soviet Marxism.

“Until the September 11 attacks in 2001, it was a very sensitive, difficult and uncertain time for China,” said Mr Gao. “There was no eagerness to rebuild a relationship or treat China as a partner, and there were no summit meetings until Jiang Zemin met Bill Clinton in Seattle in 1993.” After 2001, of course, the US found a new ideological enemy in Islamic terrorism, and China was a willing partner in the fight.

The Chinese public, for its part, hardened against the West after the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was bombed by Nato planes in 1999. A skilful propaganda campaign convinced the population that the West was up to its old tricks and seeking to contain the rise of a potential new superpower.

The Chinese leadership genuinely believes this. Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, has warned that the US has strengthened its relationships with Vietnam, India and Taiwan in order to “put pressure points on us from the east, south and west”. More Chinese outrage followed at the protests against the Olympic torch in Paris. The sabotage was seen as a deliberate attempt to ruin China’s big moment, the Beijing Olympics.

Regular bouts of hectoring from the US and the UK over human-rights abuses, the irresponsibility of China’s position at Copenhagen, or the execution of Akmal Shaikh have merely confirmed the suspicion that the West believes it can boss China around.

China is now well placed to be the world’s next superpower. Its admission to the World Trade Organisation in 2000 launched a decade of frantic trading that has seen its gross domestic product rise from below that of Spain and Italy to overtake Japan’s, making it the world’s second-largest economy. By 2027, according to Goldman Sachs, it will overtake the US and become the largest.

More than 250 million people have been lifted out of poverty in just three decades and a sprawling middle class has emerged. China is the world’s largest car market, and rich Chinese bought £6 billion of luxury goods this year, a 12 per cent rise as the rest of the world slumped. One of last year’s biggest catchphrases was: “Money is not a problem,” mocking the country’s vulgar nouveau riche for flaunting their wealth.

The financial crisis revealed that the US is in hock to the Chinese government to the tune of $1.7 trillion dollars. The new global order was cast in clear relief when Barack Obama visited Beijing in November to ask if China, as one of America’s largest trading partners, would revalue its currency to make the terms of trade more equitable. He got nothing in response.

While the West has been crippled by the financial crisis, China has hardly been touched. Its banks were already nationalised, and were quickly ordered to lend money. The resulting wave of cash boosted confidence in the economy and helped to generate growth of around nine per cent in 2009. By contrast, living standards in the UK retreated to pre-2005 levels.

China has grown so rapidly that its leaders have been pushed to the front of the world stage without much experience of international diplomacy. “Within the four corners of its country, China is a world in itself,” said Mr Gao. “It has a history of being introverted. Just look at the position of the foreign minister. He is not a member of the [ruling] politburo. There are two or three dozen officials more senior than him,” he added. Among the top leaders, only Li Keqiang and Li Yuanchao can speak English.

For the past 30 years, Chinese leaders have been following Deng Xiaoping’s strategy of tao guang yang hui, a cautiousness that is best translated as the opposite of chutzpah. They have not sought the limelight, listening more than speaking and to trying to be humble.

Now they have been thrust into the spotlight, China’s leaders are going about the job in a workmanlike fashion. Unlike their predecessors, the current generation does not make grand geopolitical gestures. When they travel abroad, it is strictly business.

Africa, South America and the developing world have discovered that China is a dependable, predictable and responsible partner, as long as its “hot buttons” of Tibet, Taiwan and human rights are not pushed. China is unlikely ever to cement a “Group of Two” arrangement with the US, as some have speculated. There will be no G2 because China fears alienating its smaller partners.

The lack of understanding on both sides is immense. This year, for example, only seven Chinese novels were published in English in the US, a sign of how little appetite there is to learn about China and its culture. As a result, patronising stereotypes still hold sway.

In turn, few Chinese, know anything about Britain beyond its colonial history and its industrial revolution. To seize the opportunity of becoming a trusted partner of China, Britain must not be seen as a bullying or ignorant power. What is needed is a genuine understanding of how Beijing works, a desire to do business, and a tone that emphasises that, while we may not agree with all its policies, we still respect the country.

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