中文
By Daryl Guppy
China surrounds itself with friends, not with allies. It's a fundamental difference from Western strategists' thinking, since they believe their friends must serve as their allies .
This belief sets the foundation for Western engagement with the world, and has created a system of hegemony where the world is framed as either with us or against us. This belief about the world is conducive to conflict because it can not recognize the subtlety involved in friendship. The United States has two land borders. To the north is the Anglo-French community of Canada. They ascribe to the same general philosophy as the U.S. American defense arrangements with Canada are more extensive than with almost any other country. They are NATO partners.
To the south is Mexico, infamously held at bay by Donald Trump's incomplete wall. Mexico appears to be so impoverished and politically dysfunctional that it is not seen as a threat to the U.S., so there is no need to interfere with its domestic politics.
China shares land borders with 14 countries and it manages those relationships in a very different manner to the U.S. One of its longest borders is with Russia and the republics of the old Soviet Union. These were all guests at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit held in the Uzbek city of Samarkand. The very name foreshadows the difference in thinking. The SCO promotes cooperation. Unlike NATO, it is not a treaty or military alliance bloc. Beijing manages its border integrity through cooperation, not confrontation. It's a concept that seems foreign to Western thinking so they assume that cooperation would always require a military component.
China has no formal military alliances with any country. There is no Chinese equivalent of NATO, Quad or the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty. This simple fact has escaped both the Western media coverage and Western political thinking. Because China has no formal allies, some Western commentators think that China stands isolated and without real friends. The achievements of the SCO summit show this is not true.
The difference in thinking leads the Western media to misunderstand the February meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping and their statement of "no-limits friendship where anything can be discussed." Western commentators leave out the last five words and believe this friendship is a military alliance because, for them, this type of friendship has to involve a military aspect. They ignore the full meaning of the "no-limits friendship,"which is that there is nothing that cannot be discussed when the two leaders meet.
This is very different from the friendship between India and the U.S., where some issues are off limits for discussion. U.S. President Joe Biden will only meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi if the latter agrees not to mention the disaster of the 1984 chemical leak at Bhopal, which injured over 500,000 people and the inadequate compensation paid by the American company, Union Carbide.
The "no-limits friendship" does not mean unquestioning support for whatever actions either country may take.
China's preference to maintain border security is by not interfering in the internal affairs of those countries along its borders. Beijing prefers to protect its borders by extending the hand of cooperation.
Of course from time to time, China has deployed force to preserve its border integrity but with one very important difference from the approach taken by the U.S. China has not been involved in long-standing wars, such as in Vietnam and Afghanistan. When China has conducted foreign military actions, it has been swift and limited in objectives and time. China did not spend decades in Vietnam or Korea or outside its northern borders.
China has no desire to work with those who wish to do harm to China. Beijing remains justifiably concerned about American attempts to expand a disruptive influence in Central Asia by interfering in those countries despite its failures in Afghanistan.
This desire for territorial integrity is not unique to China alone. The protection of national borders remains an integral duty of every sovereign government. Beijing's solution is to develop cooperation and trade with its neighbors. It does not seek conflicts. It does not seek military and territorial expansion. China relies on cooperative trade relationships. This stands in stark contrast to Washington's preference to demand alliances that require a military commitment.
Former Australian Ambassador to China, Geoff Raby, said, "China has demonstrated considerable institution-building entrepreneurship. It also initiated the BRICS grouping, created the New Development Bank and, of course, President Xi's signature Belt and Road Initiative. In this respect, China's statecraft has been skillful."
Working toward cooperation, not military alliances as a condition of friendship, is a better way to ensure peace and stability.
Daryl Guppy is an international financial technical analysis expert. He has provided a weekly Shanghai Index analysis for media for the Chinese mainland for more than a decade. Guppy appears regularly on CNBC Asia and is known as "The Chart Man." He is a national board member of the Australia China Business Council.
