http://www.warwickboar.co.uk/boar/opinion/great_leap_forward/
At the time of writing, Japan has given a massive $500m. America, $350m plus free use of cargo planes, aircraft carriers, helicopters and 1,500 Marines. The UK, $100m plus naval frigates and expertise in delivering frontline aid. All these nations and many others have, despite pressing domestic concerns, given generously to save lives in the watery hell that is the Indian Ocean's coastline. China? A belated $60m, and not much else. A country which is the foremost power in the region, has its own space program and will soon overtake Britain as the world's 4th largest economy finds itself donating less as a proportion of its total GDP than mighty Holland.
Before anyone writes in to accuse me of turning the worst natural disaster of our time into some kind of ghastly league table of international munificence, don't. It is entirely China's business how much of its own wealth it donates, and the Asian tsunami isn't even what concerns me here - nothing worthwhile can be said about such a calamity. The question is this: why are we so relaxed about China's ongoing rise to superpower? After all, this is a country whose ills go way beyond fiscal parsimony. From its pervasive militarism to its suppression of political dissent to its repression of religious freedom to its brutal one-child policy to its butchery in Tibet to its meddling in Hong Kong to its intimidation of Taiwan, China stands out as by far the most authoriarian of the world's power blocs, including Russia, India, Europe, America and Japan.
Yet nobody seems troubled by its remorseless ascent. From the right, there is the idle hope that China's successful economic liberalisation (it is now communist in name only) will lead to political liberalisation. From the centre, there is a detached curiosity about Chinese hegemony, as though it were nothing more serious than a novel anthropological experiment. Most revolting, however, is the European left's reaction: gleeful anticipation of a rival to America - however illiberal, however threatening, however alien to the values the left is supposed to believe in. In an act of what can only be called "pre-emptive suicide", the EU even wants to resume selling arms to China despite the fact that, if Vladimir Putin gets his wish of a Russia-China alliance, Europe will suddenly find itself amounting to little more than a vulnerable peninsula of a vast authoritarian landmass stretching from Moscow to Beijing.
The one good thing about China's rise is that it will expose America's critics as the morally selective hypocrites they are. If they freak out when the Marines down in Gitmo "torture" detainees by playing Metallica CDs at maximum volume, will they also be outraged about the millions of Chinese dissidents who are sent to "re-education" camps by their government? If they question America's democratic credentials because some poor sod in Miami Beach is wrongly registered as a felon, will they also be troubled the fact that China hasn't had a single national election in its 5,000 year history? If they tut-tut at Bush's use of pugnacious rhetoric such as "smoke 'em out" and "let's roll", will they also condemn the Chinese generals whose idea of nuclear diplomacy is saying things like "America cares more about Los Angeles than it does about Tai Pei"?
Not only is the liberal world sleeping while an illiberal giant grows, it is embracing it at the same time. Record numbers are travelling to China as tourists. As someone who refuses to visit any country which is even remotely authoritarian - even Germany is out of bounds, as it retains national service - I watch as friends who have marched against the policies of their own government cheerfully visit a country where, only 15 years ago in Tiananmen Square, Chinese kids of their age were murdered and maimed for doing the same. Sometimes, you cannot eat enough to vomit enough. |
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