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1   Heraclitusstudent   2017 Dec 14, 12:30pm  

Updated Dec. 12, 2017 5:40 a.m. ET

SHANGHAI—For decades, the relationship between China and the West rested on illusion and pretense.

Western politicians fooled themselves into thinking that the Chinese system, centrally directed and authoritarian, would in time resemble their own, open and democratic.

For its part, China camouflaged its global ambitions. Obeying Deng Xiaoping’s maxim to “hide our capabilities and bide our time,” it built itself into a manufacturing colossus and the world’s largest trader, amassed “hard” military power and projected “soft” influence, sometimes covert and bought with cash.

This game of make-believe is winding down.

Last week’s trip to China by Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister whose father engineered his country’s opening to the People’s Republic, will likely go down as one of the last in a series of largely futile Western efforts to “shape” China’s rise by encouraging its adoption of liberal Western ideas. He arrived with plans to open talks on a “progressive” free-trade agreement that stresses gender equality, labor protections and environmental rights. He was politely shown the door.

At the same time, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was underscoring a new era of realism. With China in mind, he introduced legislation to limit foreign interference in the country’s political life. The impact has been swift: On Tuesday, Labor party senator Sam Dastyari pledged to resign amid an uproar over his links to a real-estate billionaire affiliated with the Communist Party.

Australia exemplifies both the advantages and potential hazards of a more hard-nosed approach to China.

Some predict a new Cold War. That’s possible, if Western disillusion gives rise to such strong anti-China sentiment that it derails ties.

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But a dose of honesty could also lead to a more sustainable relationship, one based on a frank acknowledgment of differences rather than hopes for an East-West merger based on common values.

That mythical prospect—that China will become “more like us”—has held up debate in the liberal West about the larger questions posed by China’s economic and military ascendancy.

What is the appropriate response to an increasingly predatory Chinese state that takes advantage of Western openness to acquire technology even as it shelters its own markets behind protectionist barriers?

How do free societies push back against an authoritarian system that advances its geopolitical interests with clandestine influence campaigns? China co-opts the elites in target countries like Australia by offering them corporate sinecures and consultancy contracts. It buys up Chinese-language news outlets and infiltrates the Chinese diaspora through Communist Party agencies—all the while blocking Western media content at home with its Great Firewall and restricting Western influence by placing foreign NGOs under police administration.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has hastened this reckoning. At a party congress a few weeks ago, he made clear that China is supremely confident in its own ways and proclaimed a “new era” in which it will move “closer to the center of the world.” Western politicians are finally coming to view China for what it is, not the country they wish it to be.

The new sense of clarity has spread to Europe. “It is always useful to call a spade a spade,” write François Godement and Abigaël Vasselier in a paper on China-EU relations for the European Council on Foreign Relations that, among other things, recommends tougher screening for inbound Chinese investment.

In a sign of growing alarm at Chinese political interference, Germany’s intelligence services have published details on how Chinese spies have gathered data on officials and politicians using fake social-media profiles.

The U.S. House and Senate are working on bills to restrict Chinese investment in technology companies. The Trump administration is readying a raft of punitive trade measures. And among U.S. academics, debate is simmering over the threat to free expression presented by Chinese government-funded Confucius Institutes on college campuses.

In a report for the congressionally funded National Endowment for Democracy, Christopher Walker and Jessica Ludwig connect Chinese and Russian efforts to shape public opinion around the world. The billions these countries spend to influence media, culture, think tanks and academia, they argue, goes beyond “soft power.” They label it “sharp power,” which should be seen as “the tip of their dagger.”

Australia will be a test of how far Western countries will to go to defend democratic values. Fee-paying Chinese students keep the country’s higher education system afloat; Chinese purchases of Australia’s raw materials, along with tourist spending, underpin its growth.

The People’s Daily attacked the new laws on foreign interference as “hysterical paranoia.” A Foreign Ministry spokesman accused Mr. Turnbull of poisoning ties.

Mr. Turnbull was unmoved. Echoing a slogan often attributed—incorrectly—to Mao, he declared in Mandarin that the Australian people will “stand up” for their sovereignty. Once China gets over its outrage, a reset of relations with the West is attainable, this time based on candor and clear-eyed pragmatism, not wishful thinking.

Write to Andrew Browne at andrew.browne@wsj.com
2   Heraclitusstudent   2017 Dec 14, 3:37pm  

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-plans-big-ai-push-201242779.html "The search giant said Wednesday that it is opening a facility, Google AI China Center, intended to help the company conduct AI research in the country and hire employees with backgrounds in machine learning. The research facility will be based in Beijing, where Google has an existing office."
3   MisdemeanorRebel   2017 Dec 14, 4:45pm  

"Do No Evil", eh Schmidt?

Back to the OP, great article, thanks for this.

Heraclitusstudent says
The U.S. House and Senate are working on bills to restrict Chinese investment in technology companies. The Trump administration is readying a raft of punitive trade measures. And among U.S. academics, debate is simmering over the threat to free expression presented by Chinese government-funded Confucius Institutes on college campuses.


Thank God. Of course US Academics are blind to SJWs and the intolerant tolerance crusade. "Staring at me=Oppression. Looking away from me=Oppression!"

But yeah, it's time for less Moralism and more practical Geopolitics. Less Moralism at home and more hardnosed looking at outcomes of policies rather than evidence-free accusations of whatever.

Heraclitusstudent, are you are Mearsheimer fan?

They love him in China, even though he spends much of his commentary talking about boxing in China. They know what realpolitik is, vs. "The Fad of Bankster Hiding Behind Human Rights"
4   Heraclitusstudent   2017 Dec 15, 11:57am  

TwoScoopsMcGee says
Heraclitusstudent, are you are Mearsheimer fan?

I have no idea who that is.
I'm just tired of seeing western companies groveling in China for a share of that market, often selling their own future for a quick profit.
The Chinese understand well how shortsighted Americans are, and take full advantage of it.
You just have to ask which country has benefited most from the current system: the US or China? Is there any doubt? But let's keep at it, right?
5   MisdemeanorRebel   2017 Dec 15, 12:10pm  

Here's Mearsheimer's introduction to Liberal Hegemony, with lots of examples. Very easy listening, very direct, good for a commute if you convert to mp3
www.youtube.com/embed/ESwIVY2oimI

He's a Prof at U Chicago and the most prominent Realist in the US and possibly the Western World.

Heraclitusstudent says
You just have to ask which country has benefited most from the current system: the US or China? Is there any doubt? But let's keep at it, right?


Since 1989, we've engaged in the most diehard, foolish social engineering project in history. And it's been mostly a terrific failure.

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