Dreaming is beautiful. At the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 18th National Congress in 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) expressed his wish to realize the dream of a renaissance of the Chinese people and called on “compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to fulfill the Chinese dream.”
A little more than a year later, in March last year, Xi used one of Napoleon’s metaphors in an important speech in Paris, saying that China is a sleeping lion, and that when she awakes, she will shake the world. He continued by saying that the lion has awakened, but that it is a peaceful, friendly and civilized lion.
The same month Xi went to Germany where he presented a gathering of important German politicians with a high-speed rail plan, a new silk road centered on China that would run from Chongqing in China’s Sichuan Province across the foothills of the Tianshan mountain range and on through Central Asia to Berlin. It was not long before Xi added a “21st-century maritime silk road” that is to pass through the Strait of Malacca, westward on to Bangladesh and then on into the Mediterranean and Europe. Together, he described them as “One Belt, One Road.”
In December last year, China established the Silk Road Fund with US$40 billion in capital, and at the same time made preparations for the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Enticed by the potential business opportunities, 57 countries announced that they would join the bank as founding members — highlighting China’s increasingly global influence.
Looking toward the Asia-Pacific region, China then proposed the Free-Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) as the second leg of a two-pronged strategy to work in conjunction with the “One Belt, One Road” policy. The intent of the FTAAP is to resolve the opposition posed by the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Although these policies apear unthreatening and economic in nature, it is becoming clear that the whole China dream concept is a blueprint for Chinese global dominance.
If China wants to connect Europe and Asia, its authoritarian credentials, massive size and huge population should serve it well. Or to rephrase that, it would not be difficult for Beijing to put on a show of force that had other countries trembling in their shoes. However, it would have greater difficulty in presenting itself as a friendly, peaceful and civilized country.
China has shown its teeth and claws in the sovereignty conflicts with Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam over islands in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. This display of its authoritarian credentials is threatening regional balance and peace, and could even lead to a catastrophe.
Whether the “One Belt, One Road” strategy will succeed depends on China’s ability to serve small countries. After all, is Beijing not always talking about how the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are family?
It is to be hoped that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) visit to China to participate in the KMT-CCP forum and meet with Xi is an excellent opportunity to abandon the so-called “1992 consensus” and support for “one China” without causing “the earth to move and mountains to shake,” which is what Xi said would happen if there was no foundation of mutual trust between Taiwan and China.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to an understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with both sides having their own interpretation of what “China” is.
If this were to happen, perhaps it would be possible to believe that the Chinese dream could be the beginning of a peaceful, friendly and civilized Chinese lion.
Huang Tien-lin is former president and chairman of First Commercial Bank and a former Presidential Office adviser.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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