A flurry of global media reports on Monday showed China defending itself against a rising chorus of international criticism. An editorial in the state-run People’s Daily complained that the world is unfairly holding China responsible for problems that are not of its doing, not its fault, or not problems at all, while ignoring China’s positive contributions to global economic stability. An editorial in the London-based Financial Times by the Chinese Commerce Minister emphasized that China’s business environment is not becoming hostile to foreign investors, contrary to recent complaints by executives of major Western firms, but rather is continuing to open up and offer opportunities. Meanwhile Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the central bank, argued that China should continue pursuing a more flexible exchange rate.
These and similar articles are characteristic of the daily conversation in the global media, and China’s balancing of its public image as it continues to grow rapidly and rise in international importance. What was notable was the fact that several public statements, editorials and leaks published on the same day by domestic and foreign media outlets contained a heightened degree of defensiveness, as if in a concerted effort to win Beijing some much needed breathing space. The message was that China’s growing power is being exaggerated and thus attracting unfair foreign animosity.
The Chinese statements seem calculated to respond to several recent economic criticisms from prominent figures. For instance, last week, chief executives from Siemens and BASF, two of Germany’s industrial giants, criticized China’s business environment directly to Premier Wen Jiabao, in front of German Chancellor Angela Merkel; over the weekend U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner emphasized yet again that the United States was waiting to see how fast and how far China would let its currency rise in value; and on Monday the newly appointed Japanese ambassador to China suggested pointedly that the yuan would rise by as much as 40 percent.
“China has long struggled to prevent its rise from becoming conspicuous and triggering negative reactions, while at the same time acting on its own yearning for greater international influence and recognition.”
But China does not feel as if it is being attacked merely on the economic front. Monday’s statements came as the United States conducted the second day of anti-submarine warfare exercises with South Korea in the Sea of Japan, and after a week of visits from high-level U.S. politicians and military figures to South Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia. China protested loudly against the drills as a threat to its security, and criticized U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s offer to help resolve territorial disputes between Southeast Asian states and China in the South China Sea, where Beijing is busy reasserting its sovereignty. Separately, leaks emerged about Japan’s plans for the further evolution of its Self-Defense Forces, including expanding the size of its submarine fleet in the face of China’s growing naval capabilities. In other words, China is not only feeling pressure from foreign countries over business and trade matters, but also is feeling physically surrounded by the military forces of the world’s leading military power and its allies (and potential allies) in China’s neighborhood.
No wonder then that Beijing would seek to emphasize publicly that its rising economic and military power is being overstated and weaknesses are being ignored. China has long struggled to prevent its rise from becoming conspicuous and triggering negative reactions, while at the same time acting on its own yearning for greater international influence and recognition. Sometimes this is merely a matter of public relations. For example, after repeatedly emphasizing its praiseworthy role in boosting global growth during an economic crisis it did not cause, China vocally distanced itself from the popular notion of the United States and China forming an elite pair of nations, or “G-2,” since it knew that in the ostensibly flattering grouping lay greater exposure to U.S. competition and — at least eventually — animosity.
Yet what is important is that China’s attempts to manage foreign perceptions of its rising status go deeper than public relations bureaucracies. Beneath all the talk, genuine disagreements within China’s political and economic elite are intensifying over the future of the country, regarding the right goals to pursue and the most dangerous threats to arm against. Fundamentally, Chinese leaders are aware of the weight of the nation’s domestic challenges, namely the expeditious management of economic growth that creates jobs for the world’s largest population and satisfies increasingly higher expectations for standards of living. China is also struggling to correct imbalances between regions, socio-economic classes and ethnicities, while knowing the risks to social order and regime stability caused by rapid change and disparity.
China is in the unenviable position of having to assert itself abroad without significantly offending greater powers. At the same time, China needs to meet its populace’s rising demands without inspiring wishes that cannot be fulfilled. Different factions of the elite are pushing in different directions, not only in the face of an impending economic slowdown but also as the country enters a period of uncertainty ahead of a generational leadership transition in 2012 that will define the country’s potential well into the future. The leaders are therefore extremely anxious about foreign pressure that could help break the country’s tenuous stability and their own hold on power, and this anxiety will continue to reverberate in the press.
