The Dragon and the Eagle Meet

The Dragon and Eagle



from Economist.com

Henry Kissinger

 Next Tuesday January 18, the President of China Hu Jintao will meet with President Obama in the White House for meeting amid pomp and pageantry. To set the stage for this important meeting I have collected a few articles that offer both caution and measured hope followed by sage advice from the dean of American diplomats, Henry Kissinger.

First the caution in the form of this article from the Economist profiling China's new attitude that they find dangerous and counterproductive to both China and the world.

WHAT has happened to the “harmonious world” that China’s president, Hu Jintao, once championed? Where is the charm offensive that was meant to underpin it? Recent revelations about its military programmes are the latest Chinese moves to have unsettled the world. Strip the charm from Chinese diplomacy and only the offensive is left. Sino-American relations are at their lowest ebb since a Chinese fighter collided with an American EP-3 spyplane a decade ago.

Read more:
Discord

In this companion piece the Economist profiles President Hu's official state visit to Washington next week.

CHINA’S President Hu Jintao arrives in America on January 18th for a welcome at the White House, full of pomp and pageantry, that American presidents seldom lay on even for the closest of friends. After an unusually rocky year in their relations, both China and the United States hope for respite. But mutual wariness is growing, thanks not least to China’s hawkish army.

Read more:
Another go at being friends

For how Americans view China comes these surprising poll results that perhaps reveal more about how little Americans really know about the economic and political tenor of the world. The Wall Street Journal's China Realtime Report filed this about the results of a Pew Research poll about how Americans precieved China's economic standing.

Which country is the world’s leading economic power?

Almost half of Americans (47%) think it’s China, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, while only 31% think the United States is still out front.

Game over. No wonder China comes out top in a list of countries representing the “greatest danger” to the U.S., just above North Korea — and well above Iran — in the same poll.

In fact, the U.S. economy is about three times the size of China’s in nominal terms, and its GDP per capita is roughly 10 times bigger. But when it comes to popular perceptions of China in America, those facts apparently don’t matter. Ahead of President Obama’s meeting next week with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, the one statistic everybody is looking at is the alarming unemployment rate, hovering just below 10%. For China, it’s around 4%.

Americans are worried about jobs, and China is widely perceived as stealing them, through mercantilist trade policies, an undervalued currency and other underhanded methods. The same poll finds that 53% of respondents think the U.S. should get tougher with China.

Missed perceptions can lead to dangerous missteps that end up hurting both countries.

Read more:
47% of Americans See China as No. 1

Finally Henry Kissinger, a voice of masterful reason and vision, scolds elites in both China and the United States for, "emphasizing conflict rather than cooperation." in this January 14th, article from the Washington Post.

Most Chinese I encounter outside of government, and some in government, seem convinced that the United States seeks to contain China and to constrict its rise. American strategic thinkers are calling attention to China's increasing global economic reach and the growing capability of its military forces.

Care must be taken lest both sides analyze themselves into self-fulfilling prophecies. The nature of globalization and the reach of modern technology oblige the United States and China to interact around the world. A Cold War between them would bring about an international choosing of sides, spreading disputes into internal politics of every region at a time when issues such as nuclear proliferation, the environment, energy and climate require a comprehensive global solution.

Conflict is not inherent in a nation's rise. The United States in the 20th century is an example of a state achieving eminence without conflict with the then-dominant countries. Nor was the often-cited German-British conflict inevitable. Thoughtless and provocative policies played a role in transforming European diplomacy into a zero-sum game.

Sino-U.S. relations need not take such a turn. On most contemporary issues, the two countries cooperate adequately; what the two countries lack is an overarching concept for their interaction. During the Cold War, a common adversary supplied the bond. Common concepts have not yet emerged from the multiplicity of new tasks facing a globalized world undergoing political, economic and technological upheaval.

That is not a simple matter. For it implies subordinating national aspirations to a vision of a global order.

Read more of this important article.
Avoiding a U.S.-China cold war

Much of what Kissinger is saying is what geostrategist Thomas PM Barnett has been actively been working toward in cooperation with counterparts in China. There is a common thread of many of the same realities apparent in both Kissinger's article and in the Sino-American Grand Strategy Terms that has been profiled on this blog. Let us hope that over the next week, both Presidents find a way to be visionary, and in the words of Henry Kissinger.

The test of world order is the extent to which the contending can reassure each other. In the American-Chinese relationship, the overriding reality is that neither country will ever be able to dominate the other and that conflict between them would exhaust their societies. Can they find a conceptual framework to express this reality? A concept of a Pacific community could become an organizing principle of the 21st century to avoid the formation of blocs. For this, they need a consultative mechanism that permits the elaboration of common long-term objectives and coordinates the positions of the two countries at international conferences.

The aim should be to create a tradition of respect and cooperation so that the successors of leaders meeting now continue to see it in their interest to build an emerging world order as a joint enterprise.

Sex Trafficking, The World's Second Oldest Crime

Sex trade ancient world

Chinese slave girl 19th Century America

Cambodian sex trade

Most people will usher in 2009 today, by nursing hangovers, watching bowl games, or reflecting on the year that was, or thinking about what 2009 will bring with each sunrise. I am no different. I began this quiet morning catching up on my blog links and scaning the headlines of the daily roundup at Small Wars Journal. One headline stood out and as I opened the link, it reminded me that evil still raises it's serpents head to strangle the hopes and dreams of countless people.

The headline called attention to a opinion column in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof.

Mr. Kristof's column addresses the scourge of slavery that lurks in the underbelly of Cambodia an ancient country whose recent history includes a genocidal time that came to be known as the Killing Fields.

Kristof begins:

Western men who visit red-light districts in poor countries often find themselves surrounded by coquettish teenage girls laughingly tugging them toward the brothels. The men assume that the girls are there voluntarily, and in some cases they are right.

But anyone inclined to take the girls’ smiles at face value should talk to Sina Vann, who was once one of those smiling girls.

Sina is Vietnamese but was kidnapped at the age of 13 and taken to Cambodia, where she was drugged. She said she woke up naked and bloody on a bed with a white man — she doesn’t know his nationality — who had purchased her virginity.

What unfolds in Sina's story will invite revulsion that such behavior still exists in the world today. This article is a must read, as it illustrates one more area where human dignity has been trampled upon for far to long. The only way to fight this evil is to do as Mr. Kristof has done, and shine the bright light of public opinion towards the doers, in a hope of moving the government of Cambodia to act.

His final words offer some hope:

Sex trafficking is truly the 21st century’s version of slavery. One of the differences from 19th-century slavery is that many of these modern slaves will die of AIDS by their late 20s.

Whenever I report on sex trafficking, I come away less depressed by the atrocities than inspired by the courage of modern abolitionists like Somaly and Sina. They are risking their lives to help others still locked up in the brothels, and they have the credibility and experience to lead this fight. In my next column, I’ll introduce a girl that Sina is now helping to recover from mind-boggling torture in a brothel — and Sina’s own story gives hope to the girl in a way that an army of psychologists couldn’t.

I hope that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will recognize slavery as unfinished business on the foreign policy agenda. The abolitionist cause simply hasn’t been completed as long as 14-year-old girls are being jolted with electric shocks — right now, as you read this — to make them smile before oblivious tourists.

Read the whole article: Cambodia: The Evil Behind the Smiles

Nicholas Kristof is not just using his pen to combat sexual slavery in Cambodia. In his column On the Ground he writes that, We start a school in Cambodia

There was a special reason for the timing of this trip to Cambodia, one you won’t read about in my columns: My family has built a junior high school in Cambodia, and we just had the opening ceremony. We timed it for the Christmas vacation, so our three kids — aged 11 through 16 — could see it. Oh, yes, and so that they could see kids who are desperately eager to get an education.

I’ve been visiting Cambodia for the last dozen years and have been particularly moved by the horrific sex trafficking here. One of the antidotes to prevent trafficking is education, and Cambodia is desperately short of schools. A couple of years ago I wrote about a school in Seattle that had funded a school in Cambodia through American Assistance for Cambodia. I was impressed with the organization and the way it gets extra bang for the buck through matching funds from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. Moreover, in some countries, you build a school and have a nice new building, but the teachers never show up. That’s much less of a problem in Cambodia, where one of the bottlenecks truly is school buildings.

Nicholas Kristof is putting his money and time, where his pen and mouth has been. I admire and honor him for getting involved and showing leadership and encouragement to others. But, this is not the first, Mr Kristof has written about Cambodian sex trafficking. Beginning in 2004, he has been using his pen to call attention to the plight of these young women and their stolen futures.

Read them all when you Go to Columnist Page »

Girls For Sale, January 17, 2004

One thinks of slavery as an evil confined to musty sepia photographs. But there are 21st-century versions of slaves as well, girls like Srey Neth, here in northwestern Cambodia.

Bargaining For Freedom January 21, 2004

Srey Neth and Srey Mom were stunned when I proposed buying their freedom from their brothel owners.

Going Home, With Hope January 24, 2004

As we bounced along rural Cambodian roads, the two teenage prostitutes I had just purchased told me how they had come to be 21st-century slaves.

Loss of Innocence January 28, 2004

Four years of sexual servitude had shattered Srey Mom's spirit and left her with no real family, other than the brothel owner she called ''Mother.''

Stopping The Traffickers January 31, 2004

Buying sex slaves and freeing them is not a long-term solution. It helps individuals but risks creating incentives for other girls to be kidnapped into servitude

Sex trafficking is as old as recorded history. Our own country experienced it in large doses during our frontier development.Unsubmissive Women: Chinese Prostitutes in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco.

As many of you read these articles, you may at first think that this is problem that is 9000 miles away and none of our business. The sex trade breeds other problems and keeps Cambodia from attaining it's rightful place in a global society. We have committed thousands of soldiers and billions in treasure to democratize Iraq and brings schools to girls in Afghanistan. Our efforts in Cambodia are at a grass roots level where concerned Americans can make a difference by contributing time, money or voice to support the efforts of organizations like those below. Our leadership can lend their voice from the area of public diplomacy to perhaps shame the government of Cambodia into acting to end this problem.

Important links to groups working to improve conditions in Cambodia.

Somaly Mam Foundation.

American Assistance for Cambodia.

A New Day Cambodia

Harpswell Foundation,

I hold a special place in my heart for the people of Southeast Asia. This comes from the time I spent in Vietnam and the legacy it left imprinted on my soul. America became involved in Vietnam and in turn, Cambodia with noble intents, that went horribly wrong in Cambodia as they descended into genocidal revolution in 1975.

In the past, I have written about a young woman whose parents escaped those killing fields to eventually make their way to America, A Resilient Nation and The First Saturday in May. She recently became the first in her family to graduate from a university with a BS in International Business. To imagine her, or her sisters consigned to a life like those described above, troubles me to no end. I will endeavor to write about this problem and follow Nicholas Kristof's efforts and those of the brave women like Sina and Somaly. Since 1975, we have opened our doors to those who stood by us and suffered as a result of our failed efforts in Southeast Asia. Reaching back to help those left behind, is the least we can do today.

Recommended Reads of The Week

Top Billing:

My blog friend Mark, master of Zenpundit posted the following headline Kagan on the Greeks at Open Yale.

Mark says:

A hundred plus years ago, when most Americans did not finish their elemntary school education, much less go on to high school, philanthropists like Andrew Carnegie liked to build public libraries because they were the university of the poor man. Today when the overwhelming percentage of Americans graduate high school, however marginal the actual competence of the grads might be and a significant plurality have at least some college, platforms like Yale Open courses and Stanford iTunes let anyone with an internet connection access the best education available on mainstream subjects on their own time, their own pace and for free.

I think this is a great advance in education and a bold move by Yale University to offer access to anyone with the inclination to take the time to learn.

And another blog friend Adam Elkus of Rethinking Security has founded a new blog The Anti-Library. I have been invited to contribute and am looking forward to expanding my own reading list.

As Adam says:

It will focus on reviews of books, film, and discussions about the art--and--science of reading.

And from abu mugqawama contributor, Londonstani comes a concise history of Darfur and the conflict that has engulfed the region. The first of three parts begins below.

Darfur is one of the most covered and least understood conflicts in the world. It has become a politically correct cause, where all reasonable people are expected to equate the Sudanese government with Hitler and the Nazis without question. But such moral sweeps prevent a closer examination of the Sudanese government's motives and methods. From the outset, the Sudanese government's aim was to pacify Darfur's rebels. Their approach led to the humanitarian disaster and political powder keg we see today.

Understanding the Darfur conflict, where it might head and ultimately, how to stop it, rests on understanding its history.

When the war started, life in Darfur was pretty much as it has probably been for thousands of years. Isolated villages of straw huts dotted the landscape, there was no electricity or sanitation and journeys were measured by how much distance a donkey could cover in a day. Darfur used to be run by a loose central authority that, in the Islamic tradition, called itself a Sultanate. It's main job was to mediate conflict - which usually involved watering and grazing rights. The Sultanate was abolished in 1917, when Darfur became the last part of Sudan to fall to British control.

Counterinsurgency: Darfur style

Finally I want to introduce another new blog that I recently was invited to be a contributor.

Understanding Each Other, Diversity and Dissent founded and hosted by pavocavalry. The blog offers a chance for people to exchange ideas and come together to meet the goals set out in the blogs mission statement. Pavocavalry brings the prospective of someone with vast experience in the affairs of South Central Asia and brings a cornucopia of history and commentary to his blog.

Mission Statement:

This forum is devoted to increasing understanding and reducing the Clash of Civilisations. We intend to share perspectives aimed at decipher the present global geopolitical situation. The goal of this forum is decentralisation and encouragement of expression of all viewpoints in order to foster tolerance.

Everything that anyone has to say is valuable and can act as a catalyst to constructive and meaningful discussion, so please do not hesitate to express yourself or to comment on anything. Nothing is off limits.

I hope everyone enjoys reading the above links as much as I have. They each have something to offer to educate, inform and inspire.