Beijing makes nice with Asia-Pacific neighbors but fails to retreat on ties with Pyongyang and Teheran

[ErnstBlofeld]

East Asia Intel:

At the height of the Sino-U.S. confrontation over the Yellow Sea this past summer, hawkish military commentator Gen. Luo Yuan raised eyebrows when he cited a Mao quotation: "If people don't offend us, we won't offend them; but if people run afoul of us, we sure will fight back."

Well, times have changed since then. Now, the foreign-policy team under President Hu Jintao is toeing another Mao line: "When the enemies advance, we retreat; when they retreat, we advance."


At least for the near term, Beijing is beating a strategic retreat following contretemps on different fronts: the U.S. apparently supporting members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the latter's sovereignty disputes with China over islets in the South China Sea; politicians of different stripes in Japan talking about rearmament; exacerbation of border conflicts with India; and the Oslo-based Nobel Peace Prize Committee giving the coveted award to top dissident Liu Xiaobo.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership is working on damage control by making nice with a host of countries at the meeting of ASEAN defense ministers in Hanoi earlier this week, in which senior officials from the U.S. and Japan were also present.

Firstly, military-to-military ties with the U.S. were restored when Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Liang Guanglie met with American counterpart Robert Gates. Gates accepted an invitation to go to Beijing early next year.

Gen. Liang also held brief talks with Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, which was the highest-level meeting between officials from both countries since the captain of a Chinese fishing vessel was seized near the contested Diaoyu (or Senkaku) islands in early September.

Beijing gave signals that a planned port call at Qingdao by vessels of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force might take place in the near future. More significantly, the Chinese Fishery Administration has at least temporarily stopped sending armed patrol boats close to the Diaoyu/Senkaku archipelago.

At the Hanoi meeting, Gen. Liang took pains to reassure ASEAN ministers that Beijing was sincere about boosting "mutual trust" with South East Asian countries. "China's defense development is not aimed to challenge or threaten anyone, but to ensure its security and promote international and regional peace and stability," he said.

"China pursues a defense policy that is defensive in nature."

Diplomatic observers in Beijing say, however, that it would be a mistake to assume that the Hu Jintao leadership is ramping down the country's aggressive global power projection.

Zhou Yongkang, a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee was in Pyongyang last week for celebrations marking the 65th anniversary of the establishing of the Korean Workers Party.

It is understood that Zhou, who met "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il four times during his three-day stay, consolidated the "lips-and-teeth" relationship between the two neighbors partly through professing China's unconditioned support for Kim's third son and heir-apparent, Gen. Kim Jong-Un.