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China, handle with care!

For many centuries China has fascinated the western world, the first glimpses being available through the odyssey of Marco Polo in the days of the great Kublai Khan. Over the past two centuries no other country in the world has seen more outside interference in their internal affairs, making the Chinese, already historically inscrutable, insular as a people. The analysis of the relationship with outsiders is thus intriguing but not surprising, through the ages the Chinese have become, with good reason, extremely suspicious of the intentions of foreigners. In the nineteenth century, the economic lifeline was in the hands of unscrupulous European merchants, they held China in virtual thrall through the opium trade, Hong Kong came up only as a staging point for the merciless commercial exploitation of the mainland. The last Emperor faded out of contention with the rise of the Kuomintang (KMT), the KMT remnants in their turn being eventually pushed out to Taiwan and Formosa, even as Japanese militarism (and their occupying presence in China) faded into oblivion in the whole of Asia.

China has always remained an oriental enigma and will remain so in the future, the surprising event has been that the western media seemed to take the Chinese for granted, judging them by the variable standards of western democracies. The Chinese leadership was pushed too far, held hostage to cynosure by perceived hostile intent, the reaction was not surprising to say the least, what was surprising was the patience exercised against grave provocation. The western media must take a major part of the responsibility for the unfortunate cataclysm in Tienanmen Square. It is never easy to use force against your own people, but there are some extenuating facts that cannot be ignored viz, that (1) Martial Law had been declared in Beijing and repeated public warnings given over radio, TV, in the Press, by loudspeakers and various other means for a number of days prior to the crackdown (2) unarmed troops tried patiently for at least a fortnight to force the crowds out of Tienanmen on a number of occasions (3) repeatedly military truck convoys full of troops were stalled by huge crowds and forced to turn back (4) rumours of all sorts were circulating in Beijing force-multiplied into fantastic disinformation by the power of the media (e.g. (a) Li Peng had been shot in the thigh (b) China’s various armies were refusing to carry out orders (c) Deng Xiao Ping was dead (d) civil war was imminent as the military command had disintegrated, etc, etc) (5) a provocative Statue of Liberty served to rub the noses of the Chinese leadership in the dust and (6) massive demonstrations in Hong Kong, only hardening the position of those in the leadership who thought force was the only alternative left to break the impasse.

The actual military operation to restore order has been reported in various ways but some facts are hard to digest by those familiar with street fighting and the firepower available to combat troops if the PLA was really bloody-minded. How come so many military vehicles were burnt, some still lined up in convoys if the demonstrators were peaceful and the troops relatively brutal? How come so many armoured personnel carriers were set on fire (along with their crew in full view of western TV) without the machine-gunning of people in droves? If tanks were trampling bodies, how was a complete column of tanks stopped in broad daylight for over 30 minutes (as recorded by the international media for the world) by a single unarmed man (who also clambered onto the leading tank before being escorted away by friends)? If the repression was so complete, why did the Chinese leadership allow the international media to function in virtual freedom and suffer their criticism day after day? While blood has certainly been spilt in the streets of Beijing, in the putting down of street insurrection there has to be excesses, one in fact is surprised that an Army given such a task will accept the type of casualties that the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) clearly has taken, the only answer is that they exercised restraint, even with the so-called “prayer on their lips” the Indian Army massacred over 1,500 Sikhs in the Golden Temple during BLUE STAR in less than 24 hours in an area less than the approximate size of Tienanmen Square. What about the repression in Sri Lanka by the Indian occupation forces, why doesn’t the international community impose sanctions against India? What about the eviction of ethnic Turks from Bulgaria, over 50,000 of them at last count? None of the Western democracies permit demonstrations without a permit as is the norm, and very rightly so in any civilized society, e.g. anti-apartheid demonstrators, the Salman Rushdie affair, etc, order is a necessary ingredient of any system, democratic or otherwise, breakdown leads to anarchy and chaos. Pre-June 4, 1989, Beijing was nearing a state of total anarchy, no government in the world will accept such a paralysis, to restore order firm action becomes always necessary.

Pakistan’s staunchest friend in and out of crisis has been the Peoples Republic of China. We have increasingly looked to our great neighbour for physical support in a precarious geo-political context and anything that affects China’s stability is a matter of the greatest concern for us, ultimately it must effect us in some manner. Ours is not to reason why, we must support Beijing right or wrong in the same manner that China has supported us at all times. Pakistanis, without any exception, cherish China’s implacable and unstinting support, the present turmoil being very distressing as China has been a great bulwark in maintaining our sovereign independence. Despite the generous US material and moral support to us, particularly during the last decade vis-a-vis Afghanistan, the Vietnam experience ensures that Americans cannot be expected to physically enter a land war in Asia again and as Afghanistan and Sri Lankan episodes (and before that Kashmir, Hyderabad, Hungary etc) have shown, hegemonists are not averse to send in occupying forces to impose their will. While we are quite capable of dealing with the Indians on our own, the Defence Services will face simultaneous pressure from Soviet Russia through their surrogates in Afghanistan, the apportioning of forces to deal with such a perceived threat makes a critical difference to us in the defence of our country. To an extent this gap has been reduced, thanks to the Afghan Mujahideen, the “Brass Tacks” scare and resultant analysis of our military deficiencies.

The first two decades of Communist rule in China saw the cleansing of centuries of social problems compounded by neglect and the excesses of last vestiges of imperial rule including the widespread and enduring corruption left by the KMT, China in effect had been ruled by a few rich families and their European trading partners. Kissinger’s trip to China in 1971, was symbolic of the realisation among China’s leaders, that it was time to open China’s closed society to modern development, accelerated in the late 70s by Deng Xiao Ping, with the profound realisation that reform of the economically barren socialistic system could only be possible by inviting western entrepreneurship to invest in China, the bait being an expectant population of almost 1 billion. Like bees drawn to honey westerners headed east to this major bastion for economic exploitation, and over the last decade located a wide spectrum of industries across the length of China, specially close to the coast. The system of government in China was well-known to them as well as the traditional Chinese reserve, no one then had any qualms about making use of China’s cheap labour to produce a wide range of merchandise, suddenly all and sundry have become Born-Again democrats. The pragmatic policies of Deng Xiao Ping were motivated to create fresh economic opportunities necessary for the massive population to catch up material-wise with the rest of the world, multi-nationals have been in the forefront of rapid industrialisation, no doubt many will carry on with business as usual. The dynamics of various political forces along with increased media exposure released decades-long pent-up youthful aspirations (a well-known and documented experience in the 60s and early 70s in the western world), international cynosure being perceived as gross interference in internal affairs, resulting in the unfortunate reaction that neither China nor its real friends would be too happy about. Those who have now become earnest critics of the present leadership have forgotten the desperation to have access to the Chinese during the 70s and even in the 80s, a China trip (with an audience with Mao Tse Tung, Zhou En Lai and later with Deng Xiao Ping) being considered a necessary event for international credibility by all western statesmen. Deng Xiao Ping is the author of bold reforms considered unimaginable in China during the early 70s, bringing about radical changes, propelling China into the twentieth century to its rightful place among the comity of nations. Today, Gorbachev’s glasnost in Russia (and some of its COMECON partners) has come about mainly because of the Chinese experience, but still cannot compare to the economic freedoms envisaged in China even as far as a decade ago. Except for the fact that Gorbachev is using Perestroika as a weapon to keep his own conservatives at bay, Russia’s economic situation is way behind China’s bold initiatives, Russia has just started down that line.

The Chinese people have been brought pell mell into the expectations of the twentieth century, in one decade the number of TV sets alone has increased from 100,000 to over 10 million, thus the retardation of the democratic process must also be distressing for the architects of China’s opening to the west, they certainly could not have imagined that the western media could turn the situation into near anarchy as has been done in Beijing. The various international media and governments should not stand exonerated from the causes of the cataclysm in Tienanmen, having full understanding of the Chinese system, they knew that the leadership would react when pushed too far, that their options in the face of surrendering to street power were limited to one only, the use of force. To suggest otherwise is sheer hypocrisy. A circus atmosphere, a carnival was created in Beijing by the western media, the macabre ending was always on the cards and now we are expected to be incredulous and indignant that it ever took place. Speculative reporting ran riot, the rumour mill went ablaze with wild stories that may have helped  fuel the demonstrations much further along and in turn to incense the Chinese leadership; making them feel isolated as a welter of lies built up around them. With each rumour, the student demonstrations gathered pace escalating into a “students coup” unacceptable to any government, in actual fact the complete system was on the verge of breaking down. No doubt some of the rumours would have come true particularly the ones pertaining to civil war, had it not been for the unambiguous army action that should have been considered inevitable after the declaration of Martial Law in Beijing.

All fledgling democracies have a lesson to learn from Tienanamen Square, the Army’s bite is worse than its bark, you cannot keep baiting and provoking the military without inviting swift and dire retribution. All armies have a fail-safe limit for patience, in Third World countries the threshold is lower. Wishful thinking in the western media, duly passed onto the students, that the PLA would not listen to the PM Li Peng’s orders for suppressing their protest was reinforced by the display of patience by the soldiers upto the events of June 3, the essence of an excellently disciplined force, to keep their self-control despite the extreme provocation, was grossly misjudged as a sign of weakness. One cannot really know how many were felled by the advancing troops but those who burn armoured personnel carriers, tanks and army vehicles, of which we saw a fair amount aflame on our screens both before and after the PLA action, must also accept that once an army has been given the task to restore order they do not usually go pussyfooting around. The tragedy is that the guilty escape retribution, the innocents usually suffer.

The most unfortunate happening is the reversal of the US initiative of the past two decades in maintaining a credible Super-power balance. Suddenly, there is a changeover of roles, the Chinese find the Russians understand their situation better than the US of A. USA must not forsake its commitment to maintain the international equilibrium and must strive to keep China as a friend, the cumulative effect will not be conducive to a balanced world power structure. Such imbalance may permit Third World adventurists like India to flex their muscles sooner than later leading to general conflagration when recalcitrants like Pakistan do not roll over and play dead, even Sri Lanka and Nepal are showing signs of coming to life. China at this time is perceiving any negative action as an unfriendly act and has become progressively more insular. In this respect, Pakistan has a historic role to play both for the world community and for our own survival, we must return to late Zhou En Lai’s admonition to Kissinger in 1971 not to forget that “Pakistan is the bridge to China” and even prophetically that “the bridge may have to be used again” or words to that effect. It was due to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s initiative that we firmed up our strong friendship with China, his daughter has the opportunity to redeem that friendship. The PM must make positive moves to clear all the misunderstandings cropping up between China and the western world (the US in particular), for Pakistan China can do no wrong, this is a historic opportunity for us to return manifold the many favours China has showered us with. We have a fragile situation here fraught with consequences, it is imperative that it be handled with care!

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