CHINA: God As Threat To National Security
by B. Raman
China today is ruled by a highly rational and pragmatic
leadership, which realises better than our own, that without economic
strength, purely military strength would not help it emerge as a major
power of the world and the predominant power of the region.
2. Mao Tse-Dong believed that power grew out of the
barrel of the gun. The present Chinese leadership believes that
power grows out of the money purse. Consequently, its entire
attention is focussed since 1979 on making the Chinese economy overtake
the Japanese and catch up with the American by the year 2020. It has
thrown open its doors to the foreign investors---initially mainly to the
overseas Chinese investors of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau and the ASEAN
region and, since 1989, to any foreign investor, from wherever he may come
provided he has money to invest and skills to impart to the Chinese.
3. It has no complexes to restrain it from admitting its
deficiencies, whether they be in respect of language, knowledge and
expertise, legal framework or financial structure, and seeking foreign
help and guidance. Deng Xiao-Peng's initial steps were
cautious. To start with, he opened up only the coastal provinces of
Guangdong and Fujian to see what effect the opening-up would have on
political stability and internal security.
4. The 1980s saw the economies of Hong Kong and
Taiwan graduate from low and medium tech to hi-tech and from the
manufacturing to the services sector. Taking advantage of the duty
and other concessions offered by Beijing, the owners of low and medium
tech industries in these areas transferred their manufacturing units
lock,stock and barrel to the two Chinese coastal provinces. In the
first decade of China's opening-up, the investment flows were more in kind
than in cash---in the form of the old machinery and other equipment of the
consumer industries transferred from Hong Kong and Taiwan to China.
5. Having gained enough self-confidence by 1989, Deng
started opening up other areas to foreign investors, starting with
Shanghai. Today, there is hardly any part of China, where foreign
investment is not welcome. Even Tibet and Xinjiang, which have been
affected by what the Chinese describe as national splittist and religious
extremist movements respectively, have opened up their doors to foreign
investors, though, presently, the local administrations there seem to
prefer investments coming from overseas Chinese and are cautious with
regard to those from non-overseas Chinese sources.
6. Since the middle 1990s, there has been a torrent of
cash direct investment flows from practically all over the world, with an
annual average of US $ 40 billion plus. It has managed to maintain
an annual average growth rate of around 7 per cent, often and in the
coastal regions much more than this.
7. The Chinese are an extremely security conscious
people. Even while opening up their economy, they had identified
certain sectors such as telecommunications, information technology etc as
sensitive from the national security point of view and were reluctant to
open them up. For example, they allowed foreign investment in the
manufacture of telecommunication equipment, but not for running telecom
services. Now, they have realised that over-obsession with security
considerations could prove counter-productive and retard progress in the
technologies of the future. There has been a re-examination of some
of the restrictions imposed in the past on national security grounds.
8. The desire for economic power has even moderated what
was looked upon before 2000 as its over-assertive policies in respect of
issues such as the future of Taiwan, its claim, based on historic grounds,
to the islands in the South China Sea etc. The economy first, the
rest can wait. That seems to be the attitude of the present leadership in
Beijing.
9. The pragmatism of the leadership is evident even in
its attitude to the US-led war against international terrorism. China,
like India, has every reason to be concerned over the return of the US
military presence and influence to the Asian region under the guise of
fighting terrorism, but their leadership does not give open indication of
its concerns. Affected as they are for over a decade by
religious terrorism in Xinjiang, they realise that only the USA has, at
present, the required human and material resources to crush the terrorists
and are prepared to let it do so even at the risk of a long-term US
presence in the vicinity of China.
10. The xenophobia of the past is giving way to a ready
acceptance of foreigners---whether businessmen, tourists or
intellectuals. However, suspicion still lingers in respect of
foreign journalists, representatives of non-governmental organisations
dealing with human rights and other issues and religious and spiritual
leaders. They are looked upon as possible threats to national
security. Despite this suspicion, Beijing was prepared to play
host to Shri Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam and reportedly went
out of its way in offering all facilities to enable him observe his
religious practices during his stay there. It was even prepared to
have a well specially dug for him since, it is said, he drinks only well
water and have Indian vegetables flown to him. For reasons, not yet
clear, the visit has not yet materialised. The talk in China was
that it was not due to any nervousness on the part of China in hobnobbing
with an Indian religious leader, but nervousness in New Delhi over
letting the Sankaracharya hobnob with Beijing. Please don't ask me
why.
11. During a recent visit to Shanghai in May,2002, I was
pleasantly surprised by the ease with which I was able to enter and leave
the country, without vexatious immigration and security checks at the
airport, despite the fact that I was travelling with an ordinary passport.
They make everyone feel welcome.
12. We must be gratified that the Sankaracharya is seen
by the Chinese as a benign influence. They do not look upon him as
likely to pose a threat to their national security. But, they do not
feel equally comfortable with other religious leaders. They
definitely do not like the Pope, the Dalai Lama and many Islamic religious
leaders--particularly of the Pakistani kind. They may have the best
of strategic relations with Pakistan, but keep a wary eye on its mullas
and tableeghi groups, whom they keep out of the country.
13. The present Chinese leadership is very intelligent
and has a better understanding of market forces than the leaders of
many capitalist countries. The Maoists of Nepal are not far wrong
when they describe the Chinese leaders as capitalists in Communist
clothing. However, despite all their intelligence and pragmatism, one
thing is still beyond their comprehension---the hold of religion and
spirituality on the people, whether literate, semi-literate or illiterate.
14. The influence of Christianity and the devotion of
their Catholics to the Pope remain as strong as ever. Despite their
constant demonisation of the Dalai Lama, he is still a highly venerated
figure not only in Tibet, but also among the Buddhists of their
Mongolia. The influence of Islam amongst the Muslims of not only
Xinjiang, but also other areas of China is equally strong. Objective
observers admit that Tibet and Xinjiang have made tremendous economic
progress during the last 20 years, but this has not weakened the hold of
religion on the people. It is said that in the interior areas of
Tibet, if a peasant is offered a choice of either an electronic gadget or
a picture of the Dalai Lama as a gift, he would without hesitation choose
the latter.
15. Look at the way the Chinese deal with the Islamic
separatist movement in Xinjiang. During the last 10 years, less than
200 people have died due to Islamic terrorism in Xinjiang as against the
thousands killed by the terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir. Even the
worst critics of the human rights record of the Indian Security Forces
have not accused them of trying to suppress the religious practices of
Muslims or disrespecting their religion. One is told that in
Xinjiang all religious worship has to be in the privacy of one's home,
public observance of fast during the holy Ramdan period is not permitted
and the keeping of beards is an offence.
16. One has also seen the brutal manner in which they
have been treating the members of the Falun Gong sect. If one
regularly visited the web sites of Chinese think-tanks, one would be
struck by the number of articles seeking to demonise the Falun Gong and
project its members in the most negative colours.
17. Despite official suspicion of devotion to religion
and spirituality, faith in them is gathering strength even amongst young
and educated people. One notices more young than grown-up people
during visits to the Buddha temples in Shanghai.
18. The Chinese people have reasons to be grateful to
their leadership, which has given them increasing prosperity and a
well-run administration. People definitely have more money in their
pockets now than in the past and than the people of India have in
theirs. Despite this, why are they attracted to God? Why this
feeling of emptiness inside them despite a bulging money purse? Why more
and more people seek solace in religion and spirituality, even at the risk
of falling foul of the establishment?
19. These are questions which continue to confuse and
haunt the Chinese leadership, which is not able to find an answer to
them. The way they monitor religious and spiritual activities, one
gets the impression as if they feel that God is a major threat to their
national security.
20. As the Chinese hare kept racing forward, seemingly
unaffected by even the 1997 economic collapse in some of the ASEAN
countries and South Korea, skeptics in the West, particularly in the US,
kept saying that all that glittered in China was not gold. They
expressed doubts about the accuracy of Chinese economic statistics.
They kept drawing attention to the landmines in front of the
leadership--- likely social tensions due to the unequal regional
development with the coastal provinces racing to prosperity and even
affluence, but the interior areas still caught in poverty; rural
unemployment; frightening prospects of large-scale urban unemployment due
to the closure of unproductive government-owned enterprises and the sale
of others to private parties etc.
21. All their grim warnings have proved baseless till
now. The pragmatic and far-sighted Chinese leadership has handled
the economy with aplomb. The chances of political instability due to
economic causes are low.
22. One wishes the leadership develops an equal
understanding of the force of religion and spirituality. If one day
there is serious instability in China and if its society comes unstuck, it
will, most probably, be not due to political, economic or social causes,
but due to the State continuing to come in the way of the religious and
spiritual yearnings of the people.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet
Secretariat, Govt. of India, and, presently, Director, Institute For
Topical Studies, Chennai. E-Mail: corde@vsnl.com
)
