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By Tony Le
2 August 2008
In Vietnamese there is a saying, “dấu đầu hở đuôi” which may be translated as “hiding the head exposes the tail”. The recent unfortunate incident of footages of the Olympic opening ceremony being filmed and broadcast by Korean television speaks to China’s relentless efforts of trying to build up a particular image and keeping certain things in secrecy only to end up having the real thing exposed for all the world to see.
In a recent interview by Chinese President Hu Jintao , the same tired refrains were again made by the leader in regards to the spirit of the Olympics and the aspirations of China in the world. “I don't think politicising the Olympic Games will do any good to address these issues. It runs counter to the Olympic spirit and also to the shared aspirations of the people of the world,” Hu said reminding foreign journalists that they should report on the Olympics in the real spirit of the Games.
Perhaps Hu should also make the same reminder to his government officials such as Zhang Qingli, the Communist party secretary in Tibet, when he declared at the torch relay ceremony in Tibet on June 21, “Tibet’s sky will never change and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it. We will certainly be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique.” This incident even spurred the mild-mannered IOC to send China a letter warning it to keep politics out of the Olympics.
Hu could also do a little bit to help with the spirit by not using the Olympics to make claims on islands and waters in the South China Sea that it has neither justified historical nor legal title over. By including disputed territories in its Olympic maps, China violated the very spirit that it kept parroting to the world without cease.
In the same interview, Hu also assured the world that even as China rises economically and politically, it will remain a “peace-loving nation” and will pose no threat to the rest of the world. "For a long time China has pursued a military policy that is defensive in nature. It will never seek hegemonism, China's development will in no way affect or threaten the interests of others,” Hu said.
If Hu is really sincere and China is filled with good-will as it keeps praising itself, let’s see China stop interfering in economic developments of other smaller countries like Vietnam. The threats that China made in 2007 against BP, and now in 2008 against ExxonMobil to get them to stop making oil explorations with Vietnam exemplify the bullying attitude of a country that aims at nothing but hegemonism in the region.
One also needs to pick the brain a great deal to understand how a nuclear submarine base on Hainan island, right on the door step of Southeast Asia and Taiwan, which have no nuclear weapons of their own, represents a defensive purpose. Perhaps China can say that it is defending itself against other more powerful threats, but with respect to its smaller neighbors, China has to do a lot more to put them at ease. History shows that China has always been willing to use force to get what it wants, and at a time when finding energy to fuel the massive Chinese economy is more crucial than ever, China will not hesitate to use force again, or at least threaten the use of force as part of China’s “coercive diplomacy” (to use U.S. Defense Chief Robert Gates’ words).
China’s threat against ExxonMobil, the biggest oil company in the world is still being considered by the relevant parties. Vietnam has indicated that it is confident in its legal rights to the sections of the sea in which the project with ExxonMobil is to be carried out and wishes for the project to go forward as planned. However, when dealing with China, which arbitrarily took a pen and drew a line around virtually all of South China Sea (and not even taking the time to define their coordinates), law is not always of value. The fact that China has snubbed various suggestions of settling the matter in international court speaks to China’s desire to opt for the free playground in which the bully always has the upperhand.
But China isn’t your average playground bully – burly, uneducated, and only knows how to use force. This bully packs poison with chocolate, threats with tender assurances, and pain with ecstasy. Still, in the end, a bully is still a bully, and no matter how hard it tries to hide the head, the tail becomes exposed for all the world to see.
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