Bush in China

Opinion / Forum Digests

 Bush in China
By George Koo (null)
Updated: 2005-11-22 10:37

Coming off a new low in domestic approval ratings and battered by a
decidedly hostile reception in Latin America, a mellower and gentler
President George W. Bush brought a more conciliatory message to Asia.

Western media stressed the part of Bush's speech in Japan where he
suggested that China should look upon Taiwan as its model for democracy
and freedom. The reference to Taiwan occupied only two short paragraphs
out of 34 of his prepared text. China chose to ignore the reference when
Bush arrived in Beijing.

Bush began his speech in Beijing by praising China for its economic
progress and for its role in the six-party talks with North Korea. He
gave a subtle signal about the need for more religious freedom in China
by attending a Protestant church service near the Tiananmen.

Alas, both the president and the media entourage showed dismaying flaws
in their understanding of China.

When Thomas Murphy, then chairman of General Motors, visited Beijing in
1978, he too attended mass at a Catholic church near where Bush attended
the protestant service. Giving subtle signals about religious freedom was
far from Murphy's mind, however. His only intent was to be a good Irish
Catholic.

What has changed during this interval is the degree to which Buddhist
temples have flourished. Today, temples are full of worshippers and
grounds covered by incense smoke and burnt currency printed for the dead.

China has even constructed a bronze-clad statue of Guanyin, a Buddha
native to China, off Hainan Island, built by design to be taller than the
Statue of Liberty. Buddhism has always been the dominant religion in
China. Why has Western media not acknowledged the liberalization of
worship in the country?

Surely no one is suggesting that only the practice of Christian religions
count toward religious freedom.

About the time of Bush's trip to Asia, the Washington-based Pew Research
Center released a remarkable survey as part of their global attitudes
project. The survey revealed that 76 percent of the Chinese people living
in urban areas expect their lives to improve over the next five years.
For the United States, it was 48 percent, closer to Russia's 45 percent.

When asked if they were "satisfied with the way things are going at
home," 72 percent in China responded "satisfied," and only 19 percent
"not satisfied." In the United States, the survey indicated only 39
percent satisfied and 57 percent not satisfied.

Even more remarkable than Pew's result is the near total absence of
coverage about this survey in Western media. Only the International
Herald Tribune, distributed outside of America, ran the story. None of
the wire services and none of the major American dailies even mentioned
this poll.

Why such a lack of interest? The global attitudes project was co-chaired
by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Senator John
Danforth. Pew's many other surveys were always cited by the mainstream
U.S media. Could it be because people allegedly deprived of freedom have
no right to be optimistic?

President Bush, it seems, should have saved his lecture for his good
buddy, Russia's president Vladimir Putin at the APEC meeting in South
Korea. At least with Putin, Bush would have spoken from a relative
position of strength.

Bush also misfired by holding Taiwan as a model to which China should
aspire to. People in Asia have not forgotten that the last election of
this so-called model of democracy saw a miraculous intervention of a
supposed assassination attempt on the eve of the 2004 election. The
sympathy from the superficial wound on Chen Shui Bian's belly was far
more effective than any hanging chads or Swift Boat veterans that
influenced the outcome in America.

Now that Beijing has offered to buy agriculture products from Taiwan
tariff-free and dangled the prospect of sending millions of affluent
mainland tourists to Taiwan, the economic pressure on Chen to revise his
no-negotiation stance is mounting. The opposition leaders in Taiwan have
already reached rapprochement with Beijing, further isolating Chen.

It will be interesting to see how long Chen can abide by rules in the
books without new subterfuge. His predecessor, Lee Teng Hui, was known to
make revision of the Taiwan's constitution an annual exercise.

More than 1 million Taiwanese have already voted with their feet by
moving to live in the mainland. Even 100,000-plus Americans are now
living in China. Such voluntary migration of people flies in the face of
the image of a repressive China portrayed by the western media.

During his visit to Asia, President Bush has shifted to a perceptibly
softer diplomatic approach from his previous hard rhetoric. It is a small
but hopefully significant step toward collaboration instead of
confrontation. Western media needs to take off their biased filters and
see China for what it has become -- a progressive nation on the move.

The above content represents the view of the author only.

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