The importance of bilateral ties

Invited to the UN General Assembly in New York, Myanmar's President Thein Sien will leave for the US on Sept 23.

Myanmar opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is already paying a visit to the US, her first in two decades. Some Western media have used the two visits to say that, "an old friend of China is falling into the arms of the United States".

What these Western media do not say is that the Myanmar government and the opposition both have repeatedly emphasized the importance of maintaining friendly relations with China. It seems the Western media are trying to sow the seeds of discord between China and its friendly countries.

The 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Phnom Penh in July failed to issue a joint communiqu because certain ASEAN member states including the Philippines, claiming sovereignty over some islands and their adjoining waters in the South China Sea, tried to impose their viewpoints on ASEAN. But the move was opposed by Cambodia and other countries. Even in the future, the attempt of the Philippines and other countries to kidnap the ASEAN agenda with the South China Sea issue is bound to fail.

But China does need to consider how to best use its foreign policy to maintain friendly and cooperative relations with countries such as Myanmar and Cambodia and to make more friends and expand its support base on some key issues.

In the early 1950s, the Cold War made China stand with the East Bloc led by the erstwhile Soviet Union. From the late 1950s to the late 1960s, China's foreign policy could be summarized as "fighting with two fists", that is, opposing the Soviet Union and the United States both. During the 1970s, China's foreign policy changed in some aspects, and Beijing and Washington reopened their doors to each other. As an emerging country today, China has to strive to survive in a harsh international environment.

China began following an independent and peaceful foreign policy in the early 1980s, whose core was non-alliance. The non-alliance policy played a positive role in making China's diplomacy more flexible, independent and initiative in nature. The policy created a relatively peaceful and stable regional and international environment for China's economic development, improved its status on the global stage and won it more friends.

Maintaining a low profile in diplomacy indeed saved a lot of time and effort for China to achieve what today is considered an economic miracle.

But the change in China's diplomacy in the 1980s was not a negation of the previous foreign policy, for the alliance policy of the Mao Zedong era and the non-alliance policy of the Deng Xiaoping era both are based on national interests. China changed its foreign policy tactics to safeguard its national interests in changing domestic and global situations.

China, however, needs to make more friends that will support it in the international arena. A state can enhance its power, better deal with outside threats and maintain and expand common interests if it establishes friendly and cooperative relations with like-minded countries. Building such a relationship with one country doesn't mean going into confrontation with another.

In today's world, non-traditional security threats are the biggest problem for many countries. That's why China is busy trying to find the best way to deal with the complex and volatile security situation, and has no time to think about challenging the existing hegemonic power.

History tells us that even during the era of Sino-Soviet alliance, China had adhered to an independent foreign policy, that is, it followed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in letter and spirit and never compromised its principles.

Since the mid-1990s, China has followed a strategy of establishing partnerships with major powers, which is clearly non-aligned and non-confrontational, and not directed against a third country. Such different levels of partnerships create convenient conditions for China to continue its cooperation with different countries in an all-round way.

These partnerships, however, are based mainly on common economic interests, and, hence, cooperation in politics and security lags far behind economic and trade cooperation. As partnerships between countries don't have any substantial binding force in political and security fields, increased bilateral dialogues are difficult to develop into corresponding political trust. So apart from such partnerships, China also needs higher-level friends to cooperate in the political and security fields, which can prevent crises and help control if one breaks out.

The United States has long been trying to weave a net around China. It has made serious efforts to intervene in China's disputes with neighboring countries and thus hindered Beijing's efforts to resolve them bilaterally. China is facing an unfavorable one-against-too-many situation in the balance of power and is, therefore, forced to establish special relationships with some countries. Without special friends, after all, a country will find it difficult to make a difference with its diplomacy.

China has repeatedly stressed that satisfactory performance on the domestic front would be its largest contribution to the world. With China's integration into the international community deepening, it cannot pay attention to its home affairs without thinking of global and regional matters. China is obliged to raise a banner different from Western hegemony and unite some countries so they can strive to get their legitimate rights and interests.

China is not targeting the West by trying to make higher-level friends which would cooperate with it on political and security needs. It is doing so to ensure that it, along with its friends, can enjoy their legitimate rights and interests and fulfill their security needs.

The author is a researcher in international relations at the School of International Studies, Renmin University of China.

(China Daily 09/24/2012 page9)