Seeing China for what it is, warts and all, will help bridge the East-West gap

One of the best-known English-language newspapers in Asia, the South China Morning Post, has been acquired by China’s internet giant Alibaba. That Alibaba bought this venerable newspaper, founded in 1903, has raised eyebrows, especially in the West. Some think that Alibaba needs the goodwill of the Chinese government, and will therefore sacrifice objective reporting to curry favour with Beijing. I see the acquisition from another angle.

It is not unusual for the Western media to see China through the lenses of Western values – in other words, what China should be, rather than what China is. This is not good for either side, because it leads to misunderstanding and miscalculation. What Beijing does has to be assessed with China’s own history and culture in mind. For example, its “One Belt, One Road” strategy seeks to revive the old overland and maritime silk roads for the 21st century on the basis of historical experience. It is now being played out on an epic scale and has the potential to transform Eurasia. The China trade has ebbed and flowed with the rise and fall of China over the centuries. From that perspective, the Belt and Road initiative, which the AIIB will help finance, is not a new story at all.

READ MORE: Laying the foundations for China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’

The earlier China trades were based on the countries involved maintaining their own jurisdictions. In sharp contrast, the 19th-century China trade was different because it was imposed on China by gunboat diplomacy. The United Kingdom wrested Hong Kong from China after the First Opium War in 1842. After the Second Opium War in 1860, Western customs officials operating extraterritorially would inspect ships landing on major Chinese ports.

The idea behind the Belt and Road initiative is similar to that of the earlier China trades, and is analogous to the internet. Each country maintains its own internal operating system. Participants accept higher protocols (like trade rules, property rights, disputes settlement), enabling economic exchange to take place. Countries still influence each other but slowly, on the basis of persuasion and osmosis. This is not to say that military strength is not needed to protect trade routes. A larger peace is always a precondition but the dominant consideration is trade, not conquest or colonisation.

This non-interference in each other’s operating system has been a principle in China’s diplomacy over the centuries. When China launched free trade negotiations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2002, then premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) said that China did not seek for itself an exclusive position in Southeast Asia. He added that the terms should be changed should the agreement lead to an imbalance in China’s favour. (I was present at the meeting in Phnom Penh when Zhu made those remarks.) At a recent summit meeting with African leaders in South Africa in December, President Xi Jinping (習近平) pledged US$60 billion of aid to African countries, emphasising that China would not interfere in Africa’s domestic politics.

READ MORE: Under Xi Jinping, pragmatism now trumps ideology in China’s foreign policy

Western observers are naturally sceptical of Zhu’s and Xi’s statements, often seeing China’s moves as being cynically self-serving and amoral, if not immoral. China’s moves are indeed self-serving. In Chinese statecraft, good relations must be based on mutual interest. Historical experiences have taught the Chinese that no good comes out of interfering in the internal affairs of others when China’s own interests are not affected.