Might does not make right
Updated: 2014-04-10 07:22
By Shen Dingli (China Daily USA)
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Washington should reflect on its words and actions if it is sincere about wanting to maintain stability in Asia
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel started his first visit to China since taking office on Monday, expressing the wish that his visit will help promote China-US military exchanges and stabilize relations between the two powers. If Washington is sincere in wanting the two nations and their militaries to work better together, China welcomes the gesture.
However, Hagel made remarks in Japan before coming to China that suggest otherwise. He implicitly accused Chinese of redefining boundaries, adding "coercion and intimidation is a very deadly thing that leads only to conflict. All nations, all people deserve respect no matter how large or how small." He said he will talk to China about having respect for its neighbors.
Hagel also welcomed the Japanese cabinet's move to change the interpretation of the Japanese Constitution so as to allow the country to exercise its right to collective self-defense, and the two countries reached an agreement on opposing what they claim is China's unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force.
China certainly agrees with the Hagel's statement about not violating territorial integrity and the sovereignty of nations by force, coer-cion and intimidation. China is committed to peaceful development and adheres to the road of peaceful development, and it has always taken peaceful means or a political solution as the first choice when safeguarding State sovereignty and dealing with international disputes. Even in handling the maritime territorial disputes concerning the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea and its islands and reefs in the South China Sea, China has actively advocated the position of shelving disputes and carrying out joint development.
In fact, it is not China, but the US that is used to violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of nations by force, coercion and intimidation. For example, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, but the US regardless of its formal diplomatic relations with Beijing places its domestic law above international law and repeatedly exports arms to Taiwan, which violates China's territorial integrity and sovereignty by force. It is also the US that in the absence of any hard evidence and authorization of the United Nations Security Council launched a war against Iraq in 2003, which caused an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in the country. Although the US has withdrawn troops from Iraq, still there has been no apology or compensation from the US government and no one has been held accountable for the war. It is clear that what the US has done is a violation of territorial integrity and the sovereignty of a nation by force, coercion and intimidation.
The claim that China is redefining boundaries has been fabricated totally by the US. There are two sensitive maritime sovereignty disputes in the East China Sea and South China Sea. One is the Diaoyu Islands dispute between China and Japan and the other is the dispute concerning some isles and reefs of the Nansha Islands between China and the Philippines. With regard to the two disputes, China has indisputable sovereignty over these islands and reefs on the basis of both history and international law.
It is obvious from the historical evidence that the Diaoyu Islands has been incorporated in China's territory for more than five centuries. Japan annexed the islands in 1895, and the US had underhand dealings with Japan in 1972 that resulted in it transferring the "administrative control" of these islands to Japan. Even so, Washington has never acknowledged Japan's sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands.
China rejects Japan's unreasonable claim, but is willing to work with Japan to jointly "shelve the dispute", an approach that has helped the two countries experience 40 years of friendly exchanges since diplomatic relations were restored. It is not China, but Japan that unilaterally changed the status quo that resulted in the current strained bilateral relations when it carried out the "nationalization" of the Diaoyu Islands two years ago.
China has exercised jurisdiction over the Huangyan Island and surrounding isles and reefs for at least eight centuries. Prior to 1997 the Philippines admitted that Luzon is the western limit of Philippine territory and never claimed sovereignty over Huangyan Island. It is the Philippines that has been repeatedly encroaching on China's isles and reefs over the past decades. The Philippines grounded a warship near Ren'ai Reef in the South China Sea in 1999 and has since refused to retrieve the ship. What Manila has done constitutes a serious violation of China's territorial integrity and sovereignty. That the US sent a navy plane to flex its muscles in the South China Sea while the Philippines tried to send a supply ship to the Ren'ai Reef also constitutes a violation of China's territorial sovereignty by force, coercion and intimi-dation.
It is China that has been exercising self-restraint and insisting on resolving the sovereignty disputes through peaceful means. It is Japan and the Philippines that have been trying to redefine boundaries under the umbrella of US support. It is Washington that is confusing right and wrong and ratcheting up tensions in East Asia.
The US' purpose is to maintain the Pax Americana. But it is doing so by focusing on trying to maximize its interests at the cost of China's legitimate rights and interests. In this scenario the world cannot enjoy lasting stability.
Washington needs to reflect on how to undertake its due responsibilities as a major power, and think carefully how to work together with China to build a new model for the relationship between great powers. Currently, some unstable factors do exist in East Asia, the root cause of which is that some of the US' allies in the region are attempting to redefine their territorial boundaries by counting on Washington's power and influence.
The string of erroneous signals being sent by the US has fostered regional instability, rather than helping realize regional stability. The US should not confuse right and wrong. If Washington refuses to come to its senses, it will finally be dragged into the waters by its irresponsible allies, which also goes against the purpose of the US' Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy.
The author is associate dean of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.
(China Daily USA 04/10/2014 page11)
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