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China Taps Into the New World Order
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18944 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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2 / 1991 |
2,896 Words |
| Author
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Donald W. Klein
Donald W. Klein is professor of political science at Tufts
University. |
A brief two years ago, China was in the best shape it had been in for well over a century. Relations with the United States were in generally good condition. Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to Beijing in May 1989 moved Sino-Soviet relations to a level unmatched in the previous 30 years. China's economic ties to Japan had reached unprecedented levels, and Beijing's commercial ties to the Common Market countries were fairly strong. Aid was pouring into China from all quarters, as demonstrated by the fact that in 1988 only India received more foreign aid than the People's Republic of China (PRC).
A military assault on China by either of the superpowers had become virtually unthinkable. No longer the "Sick Man of Asia," China enjoyed a place in the sun probably unrivaled by any other Third World country.
And then came Tiananmen. It was one of those moments in history when a nation's image changed in an instant. China had become an overnight pariah.
Yet images can deceive. It is true, of course, that foreign trade briefly faltered, that there was a sharp loss of tourist revenues, and that foreign aid was suspended. China's leaders were no longer welcomed in Western capitals, and senior Western and Japanese leaders cancelled trips to Beijing.
Nonetheless, China's national security was in no way endangered. Foreign anger had not been translated into any form of military action against China. In the immediate wake of Tiananmen, Beijing's leaders moved quickly to assure the outside world that they had no intention of cutting their ties to the West--least of all economic ties.
As China's leaders strove to cut their losses, a whole new world was emerging in the second half of 1989. Within weeks of the Tiananmen Massacre, the world watched the tumultuous events in Eastern Europe and, more important, the domestic turmoil in the Soviet Union. Such a situation requires a reassessment of China's role in world affairs. First, and probably foremost, China lost its role as a "balancer" between Washington and Moscow. Gone are the days when the Soviet Union and the United States catered to China, hoping to gain an edge over the other superpower. The famed "China card" is bent and frayed.
China's admirers were fond of calling it a "budding superpower." That epithet was dubious even before Tiananmen. In the years ahead, China will be hard pressed to be a
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