POLITICS: Slowly, China Adopts Multilateral Approach to Diplomacy

   By Tim Shorrock

WASHINGTON, Oct 29 — Chinese President Jiang Zemin's pledge to work with the Bush administration and the leaders of Japan and South Korea to develop a common approach to North Korea reflects Beijing's gradual shift toward multilateralism in its foreign policy, China experts say.

That shift, which began in the mid-1990s, has been marked by a gradual warming of relations with Europe and Russia and a tendency to work more closely with Japan despite Tokyo's close security ties with the United States, said Yan Xuetong, director of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University.

"While Bush adopts a unilateral approach, we label ours as multilateral," Yan told a seminar here on Chinese foreign policy sponsored by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.

"It's really a way to avoid conflict and improve confidence in each other,'' added Yan, also a member of the China Committee of the Council of Security Cooperation of Asia-Pacific.

Yan spoke one day before Jiang met with U.S. President George W Bush in Texas on Oct. 25 and just before both leaders flew to Mexico for the meetings of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

The key topic of the Bush-Jiang meeting was North Korea's revelation to U.S. diplomats this month that it has pursued a programme to enrich uranium — a first step toward acquiring nuclear weapons — and the Bush administration's attempts to enlist China and other countries in a campaign to pressure Pyongyang to abandon the scheme.

In Mexico, Bush, Jiang and other APEC leaders discussed possible U.N. action in Iraq and reached agreement on how to confront the rising threat of terrorism in Asia.

In both meetings, Jiang was sympathetic to U.S. policy but refused to endorse specific U.S. requests for tougher actions against North Korea and Iraq.

At a press conference with Bush on Oct. 26, Jiang admitted that China had been caught off-guard by North Korea's programme and said China would consult closely with Washington to peacefully resolve the standoff.

"China has always held the position that the Korean peninsula ought to be nuclear weapons-free," he pointed out, but without saying that China would use its considerable economic and political leverage to put pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to abandon the enrichment programme.

On Iraq, Jiang was silent about the U.S. drive in the United Nations to build support for a military strike against Baghdad if Saddam Hussein does not agree to immediate and full international arms inspections and eliminate nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

At their joint press appearance, Bush said that "we discussed, and I urged President Jiang to support, a new Security Council resolution demanding Iraq fully disarm itself of weapons of mass destruction''.

Later, administration officials quoted Jiang as saying China wants Iraq to "comply fully" with all U.N. resolutions on inspections.

On Korea, the officials were privately pleased that Jiang publicly opposed North Korea's attempt to obtain nuclear weapons and characterised the United States and China as working behind the scenes to persuade Pyongyang to change its ways.

"We play the bad cop, the Chinese play the good cop, and the Japanese potentially play the sugar daddy whose investment in North Korea is at stake," a Bush official told reporters, according to the 'New York Times'.

At the Sasakawa forum, Yan said China's cooperation with Washington — as limited as it might seem to the Bush administration — reflect a calculation in Beijing that it must avoid open conflicts with the United States at all costs.

That is because the government's number one priority is economic development and making China a world power.

"After the Cold War, our leaders decided that our economic foundation is more important than anything; more important than military capabilities," he said.

"The United States is the only superpower and country with the capability to make our (economic) environment worse or better. I call this avoiding comprehensive confrontation with the United States," Yan pointed out.

That policy works in favour of both countries, he explained, because China needs U.S. technology and investment, while the United States needs China's market.

Although they have disagreements on military issues, human rights and ideology, "we don't want to argue with the United States about this", Yan said. "We don't want to continue these finger-pointing wars between China and the United States."

China's approach to the United States has changed significantly, agreed Robert Sutter, a visiting professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a former U.S. diplomat and intelligence officer.

"China's policy is much more moderate than it was two to three years ago," when Chinese leaders constantly talked of U.S. "hegemonism" and loudly criticised the U.S. campaigns to enlarge the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, upgrade its security treaty with Japan and build a missile defence system, said Sutter.

He credited the Bush administration for changing its approach to China from the days of the Clinton administration, which he said gave China the leverage to obtain concessions from the United States on Taiwan.

Bush, in contrast, concentrated on improving relations with Russia and India and did not seek engagement with China or worry about swings in U.S. ties with Beijing. "This put the onus on China to improve the relationship," he said.

Sutter predicted that bilateral ties will become "smoother and better" in coming years.

That is important as the United States and its Asian allies seek to end North Korea's nuclear ambitions without setting off a regional crisis, Sutter said. "Without China's help, it won't work. That's the first time we've had a situation like that in the Bush administration."

While recognising the importance of strong bilateral relations with Washington, China is also pursuing multilateral diplomacy with Japan and Europe, Yan said.

Because Japan's economic stake in China is much greater than America's, Yan said, China has focused on improving relations with Tokyo in recent years. "Without Japan's participation, China cannot offer this leadership for the region," he said. "China needs to take joint efforts with Japan for regionalisation."

European governments are easier to deal with because they do not take a dogmatic approach to differences on human rights, Yan said.

"People believe the European attitude to human rights is different from the United States," he said. "The U.S. is a superpower trying to impose its values on China. So there's a kind of different feel that makes it easier for the Chinese to accept European pressure." (IPS/2002)