By Maria Siow
With recent accusations coming thick and fast at China, it is no wonder that Beijing sometimes feels that it is under siege.
Many in the country are adamant that China has tried to do its best, whether in working with the global community on climate change, undertaking currency reform, or reducing barriers to free trade.
Beijing maintains that it is the more developed Western countries that have not only dragged their feet on climate change, but have also increasingly resorted to protectionist measures.
As if to add salt to wound, the Middle Kingdom has also been accused of arrogance and harbouring a smug sense of triumphalism.
So much so that at a press conference marking the closing ceremony of China's legislature - the National People's Congress - on Sunday, Premier Wen Jiabao (picture) had to emphasise that no, the Chinese currency is not undervalued, and yes, China will continue to be a proponent of free trade.
As for China's "arrogance" at not attending a key meeting in Copenhagen, Mr Wen gave a detailed - almost blow-by-blow - account on how his country had not received any invitation to do so.
On China's triumphalism, Mr Wen argued that despite China's economic advances, it is still a developing country with "weak economic foundations and uneven regional and urban-rural development".
The Premier's indignation was evident when he said: "It still baffles me why some people keep trying to make an issue about China."
Some of the accusations hurled at China are not totally without grounds, such as those against China's undervalued currency.
International opinions fluctuate from arguing that the yuan is "substantially undervalued" to pointing out that there is no strong need to appreciate the currency.
On other occasions, China's puzzlement at being misunderstood has stemmed from how it is perceived - wrongly, according to China - by the Western world.
For instance, China's involvement in Africa has sometimes been described as a new form of colonialism. But Beijing has maintained that it places due emphasis on the economic and social development of the countries on that continent.
In Premier Wen's words, China has "provided assistance with no strings attached to the underdeveloped countries".
"No strings attached" could mean, from a benign point of view, that African countries do not need to improve on their human right records or ensure government transparency and accountability to receive China's aid and assistance.
From a less benign, more contentious point of view, it could also mean that the West might increasingly lose its influence over the African continent.
(Incidentally, "no strings attached" may not necessarily be good for China in the long run. If some of these despotic authoritarian regimes - not just in Africa but elsewhere, too - were to become democratic one day, the new powers-that-be are unlikely to forget that it was Beijing that had been responsible for keeping the earlier regimes in power in the first place.)
As for Premier Wen's concern as to why many "make an issue about China", it is simply because growing power brings with it increasing expectations, mounting responsibility and definitely greater scrutiny.
Growing power also means that it is necessary to communicate more effectively with the outside world.
As China's forefront proponent of public diplomacy Zhao Qizheng noted, China needs a bigger public diplomacy campaign "to better present the country to the world".
These include international exchanges involving scholars, opinion leaders, social activists, non-government organisations and even members of the public.
As authors Li Xing and Huang Qing argued in the inaugural issue of Public Diplomacy Quarterly, published on March 1, the climate change summit at Copenhagen highlighted China's inadequacy in putting across the country's point of view.
The authors noted that China's official tardiness in issuing any comment on the last day of the summit (Dec 18) had cost the country dearly in global public opinion.
"It was only on Dec 24 that Xinhua News Agency issued an article rebutting Western criticism. By then it was way too late as negative impressions about China had already been formed within the international community," they wrote.
"It will be hard for us to occupy the moral high ground within the short term."
Agreeing, Australian scholar Ross Grainger said that China needs to "sell itself better".
Even though Beijing appeared more willing than other countries to strike a climate accord, China was made a scapegoat when an accord failed to materialise.
Certainly, greater effort at public diplomacy is only one of a number of major initiatives that will lead to a better global understanding of China.
But the greater interaction that will invariably be generated will also increasingly allow China to understand and hopefully bridge Western perceptions of China.
Then perhaps China can have fewer complaints and better understanding as to why the world always seems to be coming down hard on it.
24 March 2010
24 March 2010
