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China Skeptical of Rising Global Prominence

Posted January. 27, 2010 07:45,   

한국어

“Killing China through flattery”

This was the headline of a recent cover story carried by Liaowang Eastern Weekly, a magazine published by China’s official Xinhua News Agency. The title indicates harming someone while ostensibly taking his or her side.

The report said the “Beijing Consensus,” China’s development model, and the concept of the G2, which juxtaposes China with the U.S. side by side, entails the West’s hidden intent to impose a responsibility China can hardly bear.

The magazine accordingly urged Chinese not to brag or act arrogantly and have a cool-headed perception of reality.

Liaowang Eastern Weekly described the emergence of the Beijing Consensus and the G2 concept. The Beijing Consensus holds special meaning and is different from the development models of the West, but China has no intent to export this to other countries, it said.

Certain views from the West are focusing on the threat of the Beijing Consensus rather than its advantages, it added.

Li Junru, former vice president of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said, “Mentioning this development model does not comply with reality and poses risks.”

He implied that doing so could led Chinese to become self-complacent and thus change the direction of reform.

The magazine showed a stronger objection to the G2 concept, saying China is being forced to be called as such but has never used the term.

Citing an interview with Japanese media last year, the Guangzhou Daily said, “Recent attempts by the West, notably the U.S., to flatter China are a clever plot to kill China.”

Since Washington will not compliment Beijing once it resolves its own problems, including its massive trade deficit, China must not be deceived into believing the ostensibly sugar-coated U.S. claim, it noted.

The newspaper claimed Japan was cheated after responding to a U.S. demand of this kind and saw the yen appreciate in the 1980s, when Japan enjoyed robust growth, only to experience a decade of little or no growth.

The flurry of compliments from the West to China is a ploy to add to Beijing’s burden in addressing international affairs, the daily said, and further open the Chinese financial market and have the Chinese yuan appreciate, as was previously the case for Japan.



mungchii@donga.com