BY
TOM PLATE
They say some things have to be seen to be believed, which is probably why the
sight of a jaunty Mark Zuckerberg social-networking through Tiananmen Square on
a bicycle (of all things) was almost unbelievable -- unless you were there. Am
I saying that the chairman, chief
executive, and co-founder of Facebook rather made a fool of himself?
Well, yes, I am. But in one way or the other, at one time or the other –
whether peddling a bicycle or bloviating on a mainland lecture tour (me) – we
all have made fools of ourselves about China. In this regard the
multi-billionaire Harvard dropout loses no more face than any of us, myself
surely included.
China is hard to get right. Once the anti-social network of violence associated
with Islamist extremism is contained - and it will be (in part because of the
emerging dynamics of the larger peaceful Muslim world) - China will re-emerge
as the West’s prime quandary.
There is a fundamental reason for this that can be illuminated by the
Hypothesis of the Twin Earth. Use your imagination, as the late Harvard
philosopher Hilary Putnam urged his students, to explain that reality is not
just in the mind, and envision two planets existing at the same time that are
virtually identical – person by person, tree by tree, barking dog by dog,
annoying child by annoying child - except for one thing: their water.
Now this is key: On Planet Earth, water is exactly as we earthlings know it: H2O.
But on Planet Twin, while it would look to Planet Earth-ers just like H2O, its
chemistry is different – let me dub it Shui Too Oh-Oh. So if a Planet Earth
person were to visit with Planet Twin, they might understand each other well enough,
until they came to the subject of water: For then they would be talking about
two different things; for them, their water is different. Such confusion now
roils the politics of the South China Sea.
This metaphor helps fathom the depths of the current political storm over the
islands, islets, and semi-manufactured sand landing strips from Planet Twin,
which sees the world one way; whereas Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and
Vietnam, on Planet Earth, see the water in another way. The reality divide has
become fearsome. Chinese fishing vessels swarm the waters as if they own it;
smaller nations push back in anger. Boats are bumping, crew are jumping,
politicians’ fists are pumping, U.S. warships are intruding and over-flying …
so who’s losing or has lost their mind?
To the West, it’s the People’s Republic of China. It seems that in the span of
a handful of years the China policy ‘brand’ has gone from ‘peaceful rising’
(acclaimed as sensible) to – well - ‘in your face’ (viewed as confrontational).
But the Chinese view is that the waters of the South China Sea are not just
H20, as the West would have it, but Shui Too Oh-Oh: “The
South China Sea Islands and their surrounding waters were first discovered,
named, and used by the early Chinese, as well as administered by successive
governments, and have been considered inherent national territory and waters
since ancient times, as is attested in numerous historical records, local
gazetteers, and maps…. The Nansha (Spratly) Islands, Shisha (Paracel) Islands,
Chungsha (Macclesfield Bank) Islands, and Tungsha (Pratas) Islands (together
known as the South China Sea Islands) were first discovered, named, and used by
the ancient Chinese, and incorporated into national territory and administered by
imperial Chinese governments…. Any claim to sovereignty over, or occupation of,
these areas by other countries is illegal, irrespective of the reasons put
forward or methods used …”
That seems rather in-your-face coming from the Communist People’s
Republic of China, don’t you think?
But hold on a minute: This alternative definition comes not from Beijing but
Taipei. In fact it is the official position of the government of Taiwan, known
to itself but not recognized by many others as the Republic of China; and it is
virtually the same as the mainland’s. Thus the fierce South China Sea
bifurcation turns out not as if Communist versus the West, but as Chinese
versus the rest. What we have then is not a new cold war (Beijing replacing
Moscow), but a history-based resurrection of claims and counterclaims pressing
onto the present.
Planet Shui Too Oh-Oh views parts of its chemistry as critically different from
that of the West because they bubble up from a different place. For the hundred
years prior to the ending of the war against Japan, the Chinese felt oppressed,
their huge wartime contribution against fascism underappreciated, and their
postwar status as a major country patronized. A relatively new book, not
circulated in the West, offers this consensus view on China’s perspective: “From
1842, when the Treaty of Nanjing was forced on China by the British
imperialists, to the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Western
Powers imposed upon China up to 1,000 unequal treaties by means of force and
fraud…. China had become a semi-colonial country.” The volume – ‘China is the
World Anti-Fascist War’ – was skillfully put together by Peng Xunhou, a professor at the Academy of Military Science
of the People's Liberation Army.
The glaring gap in
perceptions won't be smoothed over by bike rides by billionaires or by
legalistic decisions of a UN court. Again (to lean on our metaphor), where the
West sees seawater, the Chinese see nasty currents of a tortured past. As
the late Professor Putnam laconically put it: “Cut the pie any
way you like, ‘meanings’ just ain't in the head!” This is the lesson of the Twin Earth metaphor. The South
China sea ain’t just water. (This column appeared first in the South China
Morning Post on 29 March 2016)
Professor Tom Plate is the Distinguished
Scholar of Asian and Pacific Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los
Angeles and the author of ‘In the Middle of China’s Future,’ among other books
on Asia.
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