Dear President Obama: in talking to China, remember its people

(Cross-posted from the Huffington Post)

Dear President Obama,

Welcome to U.S.-China relations! You didn't even mention China in your inaugural address, but the Chinese censors still took it personally. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's remarks in his confirmation hearing about currency manipulation have got everyone in a tizzy. We're off to a rollicking start!

People in China are watching closely -- and starting to debate -- whether your administration's pursuit of America's economic interests will help or hurt their own.

China is obviously not a democracy. Even so, if you really want to take U.S.-China relations to a new strategic level that rises above the day-to-day issues, you need to find new ways to engage the Chinese people themselves -- not just their government.

Normalization of U.S.-China relations in 1979, combined with economic reforms and opening, transformed the Chinese people's lives. Chinese of our generation understand this. But their children take their opportunities and comforts for granted. They don't necessarily see the U.S. as a symbol of hope or a target of aspirations the way their parents did.

It is this young generation born after 1980 who were most vocal on the Chinese Internet last year, lashing out against Western critics and Western media coverage of their government's crackdown in Tibet. In response to international pressure, the Chinese government negotiated with the Dalai Lama, but it didn't feel the need to concede anything meaningful. In maintaining a hard line, the Chinese leadership could feel doubly secure in the fact that, not only did they have the strength of the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police on their side; China's majority Han-Chinese public had no sympathy for the idea of Tibetan autonomy.

Chinese leaders listen selectively to public opinion, and sometimes those opinions actually give them an extra excuse to tell the U.S. where to shove it. While Americans tend to think of the Internet as the medium that will inevitably free the Chinese people of authoritarian rule, Chinese leaders have -- for many years now -- been going there for proof that the public wants them to be tougher with the U.S. Back in 2001 a U.S. spyplane made an emergency landing on Hainan island after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet which crashed into the sea. If people in the Chinese Internet chatrooms had gotten their way, the U.S. crew would be in a Chinese jail today. In a recent interview with The Atlantic's James Fallows, the President of the China Investment Corporation Gao Xiqing pointed out that his P.R. department is inundated with public comments calling for him to sell U.S. dollar assets.

The point is that while these people are not citizens of a democracy, they are by no means an undifferentiated mass of brainwashed drones. Despite often crude censorship of the Internet and state-run media, despite manipulation, intimidation of dissidents and political astro-turfing of the blogosphere by paid commentators, there is no unity of thought in China today. Civic minded citizens manage to hold wide-ranging debates on the Chinese Internet, in living rooms, dormitories, office break rooms, and classrooms about many public issues. Reading the Chinese blogs I've found all kinds of views about you and your new administration. Many are inspired by your personal story and the idea of truly equal opportunity that you represent. Others hope that you will be more forthright and principled on human rights issues than the Bush administration was. Others are very concerned that you will be protectionist in order to help the American people in the short run, and that this will hurt the Chinese people economically. Others lament cynically that no matter what happens, the rich and powerful in both countries will be the relationship's main beneficiaries.

The Chinese government will have greater incentive to work with you on creative solutions to complex problems if your diplomats can do a better job of reassuring ordinary Chinese that you do actually care whether U.S.-China policy outcomes will benefit them -- not just China's commercial and political elites. Right now, frankly, they're not convinced. One-way monologues through the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia don't have much street cred with China's Internet generation, to be honest. It's time to upgrade your public diplomacy strategy for the 21st Century.

Just as you have used new technology to engage with the American electorate, your China policy can be greatly strengthened if you conduct a real conversation with the Chinese people. Listen as much as you talk; provide a much-needed platform for open discussion. The U.S. embassy in Beijing should build a Chinese-language website modeled after change.gov, focused not just on U.S.-China relations, but on the range of concerns and interests - from environment, to food safety, to factory safety standards, to education and real estate law -- shared by ordinary Chinese and Americans. Some linguistically talented State Department employees should start blogging in Chinese. Open up the comments sections, see how the Chinese blogosphere responds, then respond to them in turn. Translate some of the Chinese conversation into English for Americans to read and react, then translate it back. Sure there will be censorship problems on the Chinese side, but if enough Chinese find the conversation important and relevant to their lives, the censors ultimately won't be able to stop it. Nor should they want to if they're wise - because the resulting conversation would help both governments build a more stable and rational relationship that would truly benefit the people of both countries.

Comments

[Jed Yoong]

This is your best post on China that I've read so far.

[Christopher Adams]

I've read some anecdotal evidence that some (perhaps many) in China were offended by one phrase in particular from Obama's inaugural address, namely "Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions." Offense was taken because the People's Republic is still nominally Communist and Obama seemed to be equating Communism with Fascism (although, in our usage, the two words serve as a convenient metonymy for the enemies of the West in WWII and the Cold War).

As you know we've observed that this remark was censored by Chinese broadcasters and media. What is more significant, in my view, is the indignation that this remark apparently aroused among the general public. This makes an argument for engaging with the People all the more crucial.

[Alex]

There are some good ideas in this post, but it should be said that pandering to the Chinese people, or the Chinese leadership for that matter, is unlikely to get us anywhere. They have very, very short memories. Clinton did that not long ago, and the Chinese man in the street still thinks that the US is public enemy number one. Further back, the US spent time, money and lives helping the Chinese fight the Japanese, yet Chinese people today collectively believe that they did it all themselves and that we are imperialist dogs. The bottom line? Don't waste any energy trying to make friends with "the Chinese people". It's an approach that will never pay any dividends for the American people, and it's the American people that Obama should be looking out for.

[Pablo Manriquez]

Your idea to have "linguistically talented State Department employees" blog in Chinese seems to me a very good one. This may resonate with the Chinese youth you discuss as so active on the Internet. They are, after all, the generation that grew up expected to learn English as a prerequisite for competing in the global admission/employment market; all the while catering to the American language both at home and abroad.

The only question I have is what would these State Department employees blog about in Chinese? If democracy-engendering propaganda and/or rhetoric against the Chinese system is to censored, then where does this delicate conversation begin?

[mahathir_fan]

Let's remember that Communism is the ultimate goal here. Free speech or democratic reforms suggestions must show how they will ultimately lead China towards Communism. If you don't show that, **YAWN****

[Jia]

I suggest anyone who wants to talk about China learn the Chinese language first and then live in China for a while to understand its history and people. There is much more to learn than to comment.

[tom bleser, MA, MENSAn]

if this goes through I'll know that "URL" does not necessarily refer to a mountain range in Russia not far from sixty degrees east longitude