Mauro Gia Samonte
Continued from last Sunday
APROPOS my column on Sunday, time and space constraints necessitated the abrupt ending, making for a piece that though appearing complete in any case but on the whole not enabling the reader to make sense of the title. Various video coverage of the event all agree that the dialogue began on a belligerent note from either side, each resorting to warlike rhetoric at the expense of diplomatic savvy.
To quote again from the transcript of the opening proceedings, here are particularly abrasive words from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “We’ll also discuss our deep concerns with actions by China, including in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyberattacks on the United States and economic coercion toward our allies. Each of these actions threatens the rules-based order that maintains global stability. That’s why they’re not merely internal matters and why we feel an obligation to raise these issues here today.”
The Chinese side must feel offended, a sentiment expressed by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in this wise: “Anchorage is a midpoint between China and the United States, but after all, it’s still United States territory, and I accept that the Chinese delegation has come here at the invitation of the United States. However, just the other day, before our departure, the United States passed these new sanctions. This is not supposed to be the way one should welcome his guests, and we wonder if this is a decision made by the United States to try to gain some advantage in dealing with China, but certainly this is miscalculated and only reflects the vulnerability and weakness inside the United States. And this will not shake China’s position or resolve on those issues.”
It is this rude US welcome reception for the Chinese guests that, as ventilated by Minister Wang, the title refers to as the US bully element. In a way, it was the US telling the Chinese delegation to behave in the meeting or else they would get a bashing. Didn’t the US, in fact, announce sanctions against China over Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan, cyberattacks against the US and economic coercion toward US allies Japan and South Korea? This instantly brought to mind an aphorism by Charles Lamb in the 1800s that says, “A bully is always a coward.” According to this view, a bully is really not strong because he preys on somebody weaker than him; he is afraid to fight somebody stronger.
Just what sense my article was trying to make of the Anchorage dialogue was that the bullying tactics employed by the US hosts were a welcome sign for a world desiring peace in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic and all other economic woes brought by it. It seemed quite alarming that on an occasion where protagonists in a fight are supposed to talk peace, they squabble as though they are gearing for a bloody skirmish.
But then the US bullying tactics must be an indicator of its inherent weakness. Sun Tzu puts it clearly in his Art of War: “Appear strong when you are weak.” For Chinese, who are of Sun Tzu’s strain, the US fakery of power should be easily evident.
Wang actually confined himself to short remarks, evidently reserving the real telling punches in the exchanges proper:
“And China certainly in the past has not and in the future will not accept the unwarranted accusations from the US side. In the past several years, China’s legitimate rights and interests have come under outright suppression, plunging the China-US relationship into a period of unprecedented difficulty. This has damaged the interests of our two peoples and taken its toll on world stability and development, and this situation must no longer continue. China urges the US side to fully abandon the hegemonic practice of willfully interfering in China’s internal affairs. This has been a longstanding issue, and it should be changed. It is time for it to change. And in particular, on March 17, the United States escalated its so-called sanctions on China regarding Hong Kong, and the Chinese people are outraged by this gross interference in China’s internal affairs and the Chinese side is firmly opposed to it.
“And let me also say that the phone conversation that President Xi Jinping and President Biden had on the eve of the Chinese New Year is a very important one, and during this phone conversation they agreed to some common understandings that have pointed the way forward for us to bring back the China-US relationship onto the right track. And the international community is following very closely our dialogue for today and tomorrow. They’re watching whether our two sides will each demonstrate goodwill and sincerity, and they are watching whether this dialogue will send out a positive signal to the world.”
At the time of writing, the diplomatic dialogue was still in progress. This column reserves its final commentary until the meeting is done, but for this observation: A bully is always a coward. US early bullying at the Anchorage talks should betray its utter nonreadiness to go its usual way of starting wars, this time with China.
And that should be good news to the world, after all.