China-Australia Relationship One America Should Emulate

The rapidly growing economic cooperation between China and Australia is breathtaking. The state visits of Australian Prime Minister John Howard to China, and Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Australia in 2006 cemented the relationship. They are partners in a $25-billion natural liquefied gas project in Guangdong, China. Beijing is also set to become a key buyer of Australian uranium. Australia has the world’s largest uranium deposits.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a Mandarin speaker, is aggressively pushing Australia’s relationship with China and the region beyond the economic and strategic. He strongly believes Australia’s future lies predominantly in developing deep relationships with China. “Will China democratize? How will China respond to climate change? How will China deal with crisis in the economic and financial systems? How will China respond domestically to the global information revolution? And how will Chinese culture adjust to the array of global influences now washing across its shores?...How China responds to these forces will radically shape the future course of our country,” said Rudd. He added, “I am committed to making Australia the most Asia-literate country in the collective West.” He is hitching his horse to the rising wagon, make that dragon. Why isn’t America?

Granted the task of getting average Aussie Joe six pack to speak fluent Putonghua and watch Chinese movies is no easy challenge. Australia is a country of 21 million people, most of whom are racist and xenophobic towards China. Sino-Australian relations hold promising prospects for mutual prosperity. China’s soft approach is not limited to Asia or Australasia. It is reaching out of the region to Europe, Africa and Latin America as well.

The Politics of Art

Museums, opera companies and charitable arts foundations in America, like Wall Street and the U.S. economy, have nearly killed themselves because of their failure to keep their eyes on the bottom line instead of their art. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, one of the most dynamic museums in the country ─ the opening of which I attended in 1979 ─ is a prime example. MOCA, and all artistic groups in America should emulate the partnership between the World Monuments Fund, a private non profit New York-based preservation group and China’s Forbidden City Palace Museum to restore the Juanqinzhai studio ─ “Studio of Exhaustion From Diligent Service” ─ a two acre retreat in the northeastern corner of the Forbidden City that was built in the 1770s by Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong for personal use after his retirement. In fact, it is the cooperative model America and China should adopt on the political front as well.

The emperor personally oversaw every inch of design and creation and issued an edict that nothing could be altered by future generations. Few had set foot in the studio since 1924, when Puyi, China’s last emperor, vacated the palace and locked the door behind him. The studio was used as a warehouse.

The $3-million restoration, which took nearly a decade to complete, marks an extraordinary partnership of Chinese artisans and American expertise to refurbish one of the historically important interiors to survive from China’s imperial period. It was the first time the Palace Museum cooperated with a foreign organization. Palace officials visited the Peabody Museum in Washington D.C. to view firsthand U.S. techniques of restoration. Both sides are satisfied with the results and looking forward to more collaborative restorations.

The refurbishing partnership can and should be emulated on the economic and political front in the 21st-century. Just as China’s outreached hand in the arts has been clutched by America, China’s repeatedly outreached political hand to the U.S. must also be grasped. Global economic and political leadership by America and China can bring about global peace and harmony and an end to global conflicts sparked by religion, ideology, ethnic conflict and nationalism which are taking the world to the precipice of Armageddon.

Sino-US Relations Starting Gate

The environment and climate change are two areas America and China can team up to address. Time is of the essence because if each Chinese was to consume the same amount of energy as each person in the U.S. does ─ the equivalent of 7.82 tons of oil ─ then China alone would consume nearly as much energy as the entire world does today. That is a very scary and dangerous scenario. To avoid it, China is forging ahead in developing renewable energy and is urging America to do the same. China is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol and, like America, is spending billions on development of alternatives to oil. China is a world leader in harnessing renewable energy, particularly hydro, wind, solar and biomass power.

China gets eight percent of its energy and 17 percent of its electricity from renewable ─ shares that will rise to 15 percent and 21 percent respectively, by 2020, if the government’s targets are met. America can help China achieve that goal and do the same for itself. All it takes is political will power to work together.

China’s opening invitation to America and other rich countries to commit one percent of their economic worth to help poor nations fight global warming is a start. China is aggressive in pursuing renewable energy sources and will press for a new international mechanism to spread green technology worldwide.

China has pushed its emissions of greenhouse gases above those of the U.S. which had long been the world’s biggest emitter, according to many experts. Under the Kyoto Protocol, China and other Third World economies have no required goals to contain emissions. The U.S. refused to ratify the Kyoto pact, saying that the lack of caps on China and other big developing emitters make it ineffective. China and America should start working together to come up with a mutually acceptable framework that both countries can live with for the treaty that will replace Kyoto when it expires in 2012.

Working with China and giving it greater recognition would also send a strong signal that the U.S. is not opposed to China’s peaceful rise, prosperity and ability to invest in or buy U.S. energy companies the way it attempted to do in 2005, when China National Offshore Oil Corp tried to acquire Unocal, a U.S. oil and gas company for $18 billion, much more than it was eventually sold to Chevron for. America would also affirm its confidence in a policy of engagement and its distrust for protectionism. Chinese reformers would also benefit and gain a stronger hand that would be good for America, China and the world.

China’s Military Transformation

China, the world’s largest military force, has been transforming and modernizing its military capabilities from a land-based infantry-centered army into a fully mechanized, nimble active defense and rapid response fighting force capable of dealing with diverse security threats. According to China’s defense policy white paper released in January 2009, the Peoples Liberation Army will pursue a three-stage development strategy for its military reform. The first step is to “setup a solid foundation by 2010, accomplish mechanization and make major progress by 2020, and reach full modernization by the middle of this century.”

The air force and navy will take on the primary military roles and the massive Soviet style army structure is reduced to smaller fighting forces organized in brigades and battalions. A new Air Force Military Professional University was established in July 2008 to study new training methods suited to the weaponry and battle environments of the 21st-century.

China is catching up fast on the military technology front with the U.S. China debut its most advanced fighter plane at the 2008 China Air Show. The J-10 is the centerpiece of China’s military aerospace program ─ China’s answer to the Pentagon’s F-16, 150 of which America sold to Taiwan in 1992. Meanwhile, the U.S. is arming itself with more F-22s. An arms race is clearly developing faster than many pundits anticipated. The show also featured various anti-ship missiles like the C-602 and C-705 which have a range of 200 kilometers and can easily be used to deter any U.S. naval interference in the Taiwan Strait.

The 21st century opened with the U.S. Air Force and the Space Warfare Center in Colorado staging their first military war game in space. The imaginary enemy in the conflict was China. The scenario was 2017 with both combatants playing star wars. Is this how America really wants to start the new millennium? Hopefully, former NASA astronaut Lee Morin’s prediction of congenial relations between the Chinese and U.S. space programs will be correct. I am not optimistic.

Beijing sees the U.S. as a waning superpower, according to a Department of Defense report titled Dangerous Chinese Perceptions: The Implications for DOD. This report was submitted in the wake of an earlier report concluding that the U.S. would lose a naval confrontation with China in the region. Knowing this, why provoke one, especially when the Rand Corporation forecast for the DOD a cross-strait war by 2012?