Around the Web…

1. Many of us around here have been spending time over the last couple of years thinking about the growing number of China-India connections (as well as their historical antecedents), so we’re always pleased to find another blog from an Indian journalist or writer covering China. But “China India Citizens’ Initiative” takes the genre a step further, encouraging people-to-people dialogue between Chinese and Indians. Recent post topics include the role of the Dalai Lama, coverage of the Berlin Wall anniversary, and issues in Chinese-Indian trade.

2. Alec Ash of Six (who also contributes bi-weekly photos to China Beat), drew our attention to a recent guest post at his blog by one of the subjects of Six, “Tony.” Titled “Beida Students: Should China Be a Responsible Stakeholder?,” Tony’s post relays a student discussion over China’s international role, a discussion that seems even more relevant in light of media discussions surrounding Obama’s visit:

If Beida students are not so familiar with Robert Zoellick or the English term “stakeholder”, it doesn’t mean they don’t have a general expectation for China’s future. During the seminar, a large number of students expressed that China needs to step out and take more global responsibilities. Western countries want China to not only accept and benefit the contemporary world system but also to sustain and nurture it. “Of course such an idea was made according to their own interests, but the identity as a responsible stakeholder is also good for our national development,” commented by a junior student from the School of International Studies. It seems undeniable that the past thirty years has helped China become a contributor to, rather than a spoiler of, the international system built mainly by Western countries. And the reasons which led to that change were decided by many students as simply being “our rational choice based on national interests”. Such interests include alleviating counterbalances against China’s rise and creating a proper regional and international environment for domestic development. This is almost the same as what Mr. Zoellick said in his article in 2005.

Some students further pointed out that China can hardly become a stakeholder if it keeps on pursuing narrow interests in a self-centered way. When students heard that some Party officials defined China’s major foreign policy concerns as “Three NOs” (no arms sale to Taiwan, no meetings with the Dalai Lama and no meetings with Rebia Kadeer), they claimed that the country’s mindset is still not broad enough and it fails to pay enough attention to issues such as global climate change, energy security and anti-terrorism. Some of them also brought up China’s sensitivity towards sovereignty and Chinese citizens’ general distrust of the international system.

However, this is not to say that Beida students are allured by the US and conform to the American definition of a responsible stakeholder. When I moved on and raised the question “should China keep a tacit attitude and accept the American definition”, the answers were diversified. A few participants held the view that by accepting it, China will have to meet the Western criteria and thus be restricted by those countries. “While China needs to develop a broader mindset to become more responsible in global environmental protection and regional security, we have our own pursuits derived from China’s global identity and cultural tradition. The US requires China to impose sanctions on DPRK, Iran and Sudan. It runs against our ways of behavior, our principle of non-intervention, and even the Chinese character,” claimed one student. When I asked him whether non-intervention has become an obstacle for China’s growing global influence, he said it is a principle written in the UN Charter and a diplomatic tradition of PRC. “We should not abandon it, but there could be many flexible approaches and adjustments.”

Visit Six for the complete post.

3. At Huffington Post, Andy Borowitz riffs on stereotypes over Chinese environmental problems (managing to also skewer US policies in the process) in the piece, “US, China in Race to Pollute Water on Moon”:

Hours after scientists confirmed finding evidence of water on the moon, the United States and China each announced ambitious plans to become the first nation to pollute the moon’s water.

Both space programs argued that there were more than bragging rights at stake, with China and the U.S. both vying for the coveted title of biggest polluter in the universe.

“Our mission is simple: get a rocket up there, dump some PCBs in the moon’s water, and then return safely to Earth,” NASA said in an official statement today.

For its part, China indicated that it would take a different approach: “We hope to pollute the moon’s water with run-off from a lead toy factory.”

4. Prizes! Most of you will have heard that Chinese author Su Tong was awarded the Man Asian Literary Prize (for The Boat to Redemption; Su is also the author of, among other novels, Wives and Concubines, on which the movie Raise the Red Lantern was based). Another of our favorite authors has also been recently recognized with a prestigious award: Michael Meyer, author of Last Days of Old Beijing, has received a Whiting Writers’ Award. For a peek back at the work that drew the foundation’s attention, check out Tom Mullaney’s interview with Meyer.

5. We have been checking in with a new group history blog (for which a few of our colleagues at UCI are regular contributors): History Compass Exchanges. A few contributors deal regularly with China issues, including Shellen Xiao Wu, whose post today, titled “Will the Real China Stand Up?,” reflects on the disconnect between the China films that make a big splash internationally and those that appeal to domestic audiences:

From “The World” (2004), set in an amusement part on the outskirts of Beijing, to “Still Life” (2006), which took place in the rubble and chaos of the Three Gorges Dam project, Jia’s films provide a counter to the carefully orchestrated image fostered by the Chinese state of a nation on the rise.

Perhaps because they strike too close to home, Chinese audiences have shown little interest in watching these forlorn films of dislocation and alienation. For escapism, CGI-effects and spectacle, they can turn to Chen Kaige’s The Promise (2005), Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flowers (2007), House of Flying Daggers (2004), Hero (2002), and of course, the Hollywood blockbusters upon which these directors have based the big-budget spectacles. These are the films that get Chinese media talking.

6. Odds and Ends: Actually, Ambassador Huntsman, that’s “Dr. Moron,” if you don’t mind.