For the past four decades China has gone unchecked by the international community of nations. It openly violates internationally-accepted standards for human rights, steals intellectual property from the West, threatens its neighbors in Asia, limits the right of free passage in and above the South China Sea, and imperils the people and security of Taiwan. The list is almost endless. Like a spoiled child not given its way for the first time, China is throwing a “hissy fit” now that the Trump Administration is holding it accountable for its past actions and future threats to the stability of the region and global commerce.
Attempts to commandeer the South China Sea through the building of artificial and heavily-armed islands is only one example of China’s hegemonic effort to exert its influence beyond its shores. This past week the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership in Beijing literally fumed when US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar spent four days in Taiwan meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and other government officials in the highest US Cabinet-level visit to the island in 40 years.
In a tit-for-tat response to the US-Taiwan meetings, Beijing created military exercises close to the north and south ends of the island. Senior PLA Colonel Zhang Chunlian of the Eastern Theatre Command said the drills were to “safeguard the national security situation” in the Taiwan Strait. Secretary Azar was in Taiwan to talk about the pandemic and to convey Washington’s “admiration for Taiwan and to learn about how our shared democratic values have driven success in healthcare,” he said.
In a tantrum befitting a hellbent toddler, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Zhao Lijian, demanded the US stop any form of official exchanges with Taiwan and called for Washington to “stop enhancing the substantive relationship between the US and Taiwan.” He went as far as to falsely call the visit a violation of a US promise on the Taiwan issue. On Thursday Taiwan’s cabinet voted to increase its military budget by more than 10% to US $15.43 billion to help deter China’s aggressive behavior toward the island further upsetting Beijing.
While the “hot peace” was playing out in Asia things also heated up in Washington this week as the US held China accountable for its US-based propaganda operation run by the Confucius Institute US Center (CIUS) by naming it a “foreign mission.” By declaring CIUS a diplomatic mission the US can require more transparency about its personnel and origins of funding. The CCP’s malign influence campaign spends millions each year establishing and supporting centers on US university campuses, in American K-12 schools and as stand-alone offices.
It uses coercion to push its agenda and has intensified its operations in recent years. When the University of California – San Diego invited the Dalai Lama to give its commencement address China actively pressured the school to disinvite him. At Savannah State University, at the demand of the co-director of the Confucius Institute, a keynote speaker had her introduction edited to eliminate the fact that she previously studied in Taiwan.
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If the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t like Americans exercising free speech in America it acts aggressively to stop it and counter with its own point of view. These types of incidents are increasing in recent months. Not long ago, Cambridge University Press was “told” to delete 250 articles the CCP found offensive. It threatened the Press with economic reprisals if it failed to comply.
In the West free speech, individual freedom, private property, and the right to assemble make up only a few of the differences from what one finds in China today. Dreams in the West of a non-belligerent giant have dimmed to a faint memory while Beijing’s leadership continues attempting to extinguish the western rules-based international system. It leaders employ a grand strategy with the end goal of remaking the world in its image. It is up to the West in 2020 to decide if it wants to kowtow to the communist giant or if it is ready to join the United States in holding China accountable.
DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. Each Friday, she presents key updates on China.
Picture: Tianamen (Pixabay)