|
| |||||||||
|
| Special Reports | Connections | News | China Events | Vol. 4, No. 2, Spring 2005 | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
|
Editor's Note: The Atlanta Chapter of the US-China Peoples Friendship Association held a forum on "China and Its Neighbors" on February 27 at Agnes Scott College. Three of our research associates, Dr. John Garver of Georgia Tech, Chien-pin Li of Kennesaw State University, and Dr. Baogang Guo of Dalton State College, made presentations. The following three articles are based on presentations each author made. CHINA AND ITS NEIGHBORS: RUSSIA, JAPAN & INDIA by Dr. John W. Garver
Russo-Chinese Ties: Demographic ImbalanceThere exists a deep demographic imbalance between Russia and China. Russia is a thinly populated state in a condition of severe demographic decline, determined to hang onto vast resource rich territories of eastern Siberia seized during the same period of imperial expansion that produced the other globe-spanning European empires. Next door is China with a large and dense population, voracious and rapidly growing demands for resources, and a deep sense of grievance against the Western powers, including Russia, that Chinese are taught victimized their country for a century. This situation creates deep unease among Far Eastern Russians with China’s rapidly growing power. Russia is a nation in serious demographic crisis. Since 1989 deaths have exceeded births producing a declining Russian population. A combination of factors give it one of the lowest fertility rates in the world: high alcoholism, drug use, suicide, and imprisonment rates among males, high abortion rates among females, declining public health system combined with high HIV and tuberculosis rates, and high unemployment leading to failed marriages and abandoned families. Between 1992 and 2000, Russia’s population declined by 3 million. By 2015 it is estimated that it will decline by another 11 million. By 2010 Russia’s population will be about 142 million ---- less than half the population of the United States for an area twice the size of the United States. Currently only about 7.5 million Russians live in the Russian Far East. There is a tendency for Russians to leave that region and return to the richer, western, European Russia. Most of those that migrate westward are young. Those who stay behind tend to be older, further decreasing the fertility of the Russian Far East. The three provinces of China’s northeast have a combined population of over 107 million. With a fairly marketized and open economy, many Chinese have some capital, market acumen, and commercial skills. High rates of economic growth leading to rapid increases in disposable income in China create strong demand for resources of all sorts. Ambitious Chinese businessmen find many opportunities in the Russian Far East. Far Eastern Russians know that to develop their economy they must integrate with China’s booming economy. Yet they are apprehensive. They know that with Chinese investment and business will come Chinese immigration, and Chinese political influence. This was one factor in Russia’s recent decision to choose Japan rather than China as its key partner in exploiting Russian Far Eastern natural gas deposits. I suspect that over the long run, Russia will be drawn closer to the Western orbit to deal with this problem of Far Eastern demographic imbalance. I would suggest that this was one deeper meanings of President Bush’s comment during his recent Brussels speech that the West was the true Russian home. Supporting Russia as the “weak man of (east) Asia” may become a key element of U.S. policy, just as Britain once supported the Ottoman empire as the “weak man of (west) Asia” to block Russian expansion toward the Middle East. China will have to tread very lightly with Russia to prevent this from happening. (Continues to next page) --> * Dr. Garver is Professor of International Relations at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in Georgia Institute of Technology CROSS-STRAITS RELATIONS: ANOTHER CROSS ROAD? by Dr. Chien-Pin Li
Prior to Taiwan’s Legislature’s election, President Chen Shui-ban and its independence-minded Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) launched an aggressive, “in-your-face” campaign that certainly antagonized China. They proposed to create a "new Taiwan Constitution" tailor-made for the needs of the island, suggesting a referendum on a new Taiwan Constitution in 2006, and having it implemented in May 2008, just before the Olympics in Beijing. They also raised the issue of removing the name “China” from a number of public enterprises or institutions. However, despite their strong showing prior to the election, the DPP and its ally, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, failed to win the majority. Instead, the pan-Blue opposition parties (the Nationalist, People First, and New Parties) altogether captured 114 of the 225 seats in the Legislative Yuan. After the election, President Chen toned down his pro-independence rhetoric. He named a moderate, Frank Chang-ting Hsieh, the Mayor of Kaohsiung, as the premier. Hsieh avoided the sensitive topic of name change and indicated that his priorities were practical issues such as the economy, the reconciliation with the opposition, and the cross-Strait relations. Beijing responded favorably in late January 2005, indicating its willingness to “open talks with any Taiwanese leader regardless of his past rhetoric and actions.” Adding to the reconciliatory atmosphere were the direct charter flights between both sides arranged for the Chinese New Year holidays. In late February 2005, Chen issued a 10-point joint declaration with James Soong, Chair of the People First Party, acknowledging the current definition of Taiwan’s status, and reiterating support for the Republic of China. Chen said that he would not shut the door on eventual unification with China if Beijing expressed good will. Chen’s action took the pro-independence camp by surprise and a number of them threatened to sever ties with the DPP or Chen’s administration. Soong hinted that the United States had played an important role in bringing about the consensus. However, Taiwan’s reconciliatory posture was not sufficient to reverse the political momentum behind the ASL. The National People’s Congress enacted the law to authorize the government to employ “non-peaceful means and other necessary measures to protect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity." Taipei immediately put on hold talks on direct charter cargo flights and holiday passenger flights, claiming that the legislation handed the Chinese military a “blank check” to attack Taiwan. In late March, Chen joined the massive demonstration held in Taipei to protest against the ASL. On the other hand, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao defended the law as a measure to ensure peace, not promote war. Clearly, the ASL contains sufficient elements for both sides to pick and choose in support of their positions, but ultimately, much of the future development depends on the perception of and reaction to the ASL, both in terms of the internal politics of both sides and in terms of the political agenda of the major powers in the Asia Pacific. * Dr. Li is Associate Professor of Political Science and Chair of Department of Political Science and International Affairs at Kennesaw State University CHINA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA: FROM FOES TO PARTNERS * by Dr. Baogang Guo
Secondly, China is surrounded by major powers in all directions. China has always had concerns over its geopolitical security. The encirclement and containment policy the U.S. implemented during the Cold War is still not entirely gone, and it continues to serve as a constant reminder to Chinese leaders about China’s vulnerability and insecurity. South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are part of the U.S. global defense commitment. Since the end of the Cold War, the two former rivals, the Soviet Union, then later, Russia, and the United States, have indeed shown a somewhat diminished interest in the region, thus creating a partial power vacuum in this region. China has an interest in taking advantage of this shifting international balance of power and will want to expand its influence in an area that had traditionally been a Chinese sphere of influence, at least in the cultural sense. Some scholars in China believe that Southeast Asia can serve as a jumping point for China’s ascendance to great power status since Southeast Asia has become such a weak link in the superpower’s global power projection.
Thirdly, Southeast Asia is of crucial importance to China’s economic security. Southeast Asia stands between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. About 25% of international shipping goes through the South China Sea. As China continues to spread out its trade and global shipment and import more oil from Middle Eastern countries, good relations with the nations in the area will secure one of the key maritime transportation passageways. By 2020, 70% of oil and 50% of natural gas China needs will be imported, primarily through sea transit via South China Sea, from Middle East and other oil producing countries.
Finally, Southeast Asia is a vital strategic interest to China’s
overall foreign policy goals. By establishing closer ties
* Dr. Guo is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Dalton State College. This article will also be published by the US-China Review, the official journal of the US-China Peoples Friendship Association (USCPFA). The author wishes to thank the journal editor Dr. Sylvia Krebs for permission to use for this issue of the CRC Newsletter. ZOO ATLANTA: CONSERVING GIANT PANDAS THROUGH RESEARCH AND EDUCATION by Dr. Shelly Lakly & Sarah Bexell
One of Zoo Atlanta’s major commitments is to helping conserve the giant panda. Through our Panda Conservation Fund, we support biological monitoring, field patrols, and infrastructure in three critical panda reserves in Sichuan Province, China: Anzihe, Baodinggou and Baihe. Since 1997, an active and productive partnership with our colleagues at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding (Research Base) and the Chengdu Zoo, located in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province has formed. In 1999, this resulted in Zoo Atlanta receiving a pair of giant pandas, Yang Yang (male) and Lun Lun (female), on loan from the Research Base. Together, our organizations are leaders in giant panda research on breeding, social and maternal behavior, and we actively advance husbandry and veterinary practices with our partners in China. Zoo Atlanta is also an innovative leader in conservation education. With the support and guidance of our partners in Chengdu, we helped establish the first Conservation Education Departments in China at the Chengdu Research Base and the Chengdu Zoo. Through our relationships, we have piloted many innovative programs including pre-kindergarten programs and curriculum, volunteer programs, and family programs. These programs were designed to increase conservation awareness and conservation action on key issues such as the Asian Turtle Crisis. As a result of these successes and at the request of the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens (CAZG), Zoo Atlanta has designed an ambitious six-year plan to create a conservation education training program for zoos and aquariums throughout China. The Academy of Conservation Training (ACT) will be culturally relevant and will incorporate the best conservation education practices developed over the last 30 years in the United States. It consists of three phases:
Creation
of Camp and Field Trip Curriculum for Children and Families
|
|||||||||
S
My purpose in these short
comments is to lay out one useful idea for China’s relations with
each of these three big neighbors. What follows is not intended as
a survey of contemporary Sino-Russian, Sino-Japanese, or Sino-Indian
relations, but one way of usefully viewing each of those dyads.
Legislators from both sides of
the Taiwan Straits normally stay in the backdrop in the
cross-Straits relations. However, interestingly, in the past
several months, two legislature-related events marked important
turning points in the relations between Taiwan and China: Taiwan’s
December 2004 Legislature election, and the Anti-Secession Law (ASL)
passed by the National People’s Congress in March 2005. 
The relations between China and Southeast Asia have experienced a
great leap forward since the 1990s. Bilateral and multilateral
level political and cultural exchanges have become more common, and
trade volumes have increased steadily. A number of factors have
contributed to the latest development. First of all, Beijing has
long abandoned its policy of supporting the subversive communist
insurgent movement that had troubled many countries in the region.
China’s reforms initiated in the 1980s have transformed the leaders
in Beijing from being Maoist revolutionary communists to
developmental communists. Stability around its borders has been
considered absolutely essential to ensure China’s own economic
development. Military and financial support to communist insurgents
in Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Malaysia were
gradually stopped, thus reversed China’s contradictory policy of
maintaining normal state relations at the same time backing the
revolutionary groups in each country. This move helps ease the
suspicion and mistrust the leaders in those countries had for many
years towards China.
with the
region, it can reduce the influence of Japan, the United States, and
India. Some believe that Southeast Asia provides the key to the
economic integration of the Asian region centered on China.
Historically, China maintained a tributary relation with its
neighbors that claimed superior political suzerain rights, albeit
Chinese rulers more often granted favorable economic terms and
treatment to the vassal states. Today, China will have to deal with
its neighbors based on international law and the principle of
sovereignty and equality. However, China’s unique geographic and
demographic characteristics compel China to do more than just being
one of the equals. To continue to win its neighbors’ trust, China
must play a constructive role of being a stabilizer in the region,
and an economic engine which can keep the region’s growth momentum
for years to come. Most likely, China will continue to cultivate a
big brother’s role in the region, and take a benevolent approach of
giving more and demanding less. Indeed, China’s unprecedented
efforts to help the troubled ASEAN countries during the Asian
Financial Crisis of 1997-1999 and the recent Tsunami disaster
highlight this brotherly as well as friendly role China wants to
play in the region. 
|
Professor Rong Cai of Emory University has studied the presentation of the self in recent Chinese literature. Her book, The Subject of Crisis in Contemporary Chinese Literature, published by the University of Hawaii Press, looks at the ways Chinese writers have portrayed individuals in post-revolutionary society. |
|
|
Professor Fei-ling Wang of Georgia Tech has investigated China's household registration (hukou) system. His book, Organizing Through Division and Exclusion: China's Hukou System, was released by Stanford University Press in January. As the title suggests, Professor Wang discovered both positive and negative features of this system of Chinese social organization. |
|
Following the event, everyone is invited to a Dutch-treat dinner at the New Century Restaurant on Scott Boulevard just south of the intersection with North Decatur Road. Contact: Peggy Roney, President, USCPFA-Atlanta Chapter; 404-292-0714; p309@bellsouth.net
TALK ON THE CHINESE FEMININE-HEROIC QIU JIN TO BE
HELD AT EMORY ON APRIL 18
Dr. Joan Judge, Associate Professor of History at University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, will make a presentation on "the Chinese Feminine-heroic new style women warriors at the turn of the twentieth century" on Monday, April 18, 2005, 4:30 p.m. at White Hall 112 at Emory University. In examining the complexities of the new feminine-heroic mode in China at the turn of the twentieth century, this talk examines the role of nationalism in both authorizing and limiting the new discourse on women as human beings which emerged in this period. Focusing on the example of the revolutionary martyr Qiu Jin (1875-1907), it analyzes the gender paradoxes which underlay the constitution of women as new human/national/historical subjects.
| The China Research Center (http://www.chinacenter.net ) links China experts to the larger community interested in developments in greater China in business, media, academia and government. The Center promotes original research on greater China’s contemporary political, economic and cultural situation. The Center also strives to disseminate research results, policy options, and business and study opportunities for China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Center serves as a bridge between the Southeast United States and greater China, and a base for collaboration between academia, business and government. Please send all correspondences to Dr. Penelope B. Prime, China Research Center, c/o Department of Economics and Finance, Coles College of Business Kennesaw State University, 1000 Chastain Road # 0403, Kennesaw, Georgia 30144, Tel: (770) 423-6579 Fax: (770) 499-3209; Newsletter Editor: Dr. Baogang Guo, Dalton State College. |