Rising China coming to terms with global role

As China’s economy grows, it is also undergoing a political transition and figuring out where its geopolitical interests lie and what sort of global player it wants to be, says Professor Jia Qingguo, Dean of the School of Inter-national Studies at Peking University.

In a wide-ranging interview with TODAY’s Albert Wai (albertwai [at] mediacorp.com.sg) on the sidelines of this week’s Regional Outlook Forum 2016 organised by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, Prof Jia — who is also a member of the Standing Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference — shares his thoughts on Chinese foreign policy, the South China Sea, cross-strait relations with Taiwan, the situation in the Korean peninsula and the recent market turmoil in the world’s No 2 economy.

What do you expect China’s foreign policy preoccupation to be in 2016?

I think Chinese foreign policy will continue to focus on maintaining a peaceful international environment, so China can focus on domestic reforms and development. In addition to that, I think China will probably expend effort to work with the international community to address various global challenges, ranging from climate change to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons as well as other regional and global issues. Of course, China will continue to defend its core national interests.

Can you comment on the latest developments in the South China Sea, particularly the several test landings last week on the new artificial island? What kind of message is China sending to the region?

China has built islands, just like the Philippines and Vietnam did. Once built, they must be put to some kind of use. And testing flights is a way to put (the islands) to good use.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the islands could be used for various purposes — which do not only serve China’s interests, but also the interests of other countries — such as international rescue operations, shelter for fishermen, and various kinds of weather forecasting.

So, once you have the airports ready to take planes, then you can have (an) army. If China wants to do these things, this is a must.

China certainly does not want to send the wrong message that it wants to militarise the islands for offensive purposes.

I think that is probably one of the considerations behind sending the civilian airliners there first, but it does not necessarily mean that China will not send fighter planes to the islands to test international rescue operations. I think whether China sends the military planes to the area is not the most important issue.

The most important (thing) is whether the islands are used for strategic offensive reasons, or (with) good intentions (to provide) services to Chinese (citizens) and the people of other countries who may benefit from them.

Laos is the chairman of the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year, and it has a shared border with China. How will China work with Laos in terms of engaging ASEAN?

I think China’s policy (towards ASEAN) probably will not change. China wants ASEAN to play a positive role in the region, and wants to be a friend of ASEAN.

At the same time, China hopes that ASEAN (as an) organisation will not be used as a mechanism to oppose China or harm China’s interests.

What do you think are the chances of China and other rival claimant states developing a code of conduct in the South China Sea this year? How close are we to reaching an agreement on the code of conduct?

It’s hard to tell at this stage, but I believe the chance for a code of conduct will probably become greater in the days to come. Both China and the other countries need time to think about it, and over the past few years there were conflicts (and) problems.

(But) through this, I think people in different countries probably would draw the conclusion that conflict and confrontation are not in the best interests of the respective countries. So, a code of conduct may be regarded as a way out of the previous predicaments.

On one hand, China has said that it wants peaceful development, and needs a stable regional environment to pursue further economic growth. On the other, there are reports of China building a new aircraft carrier as well as a super coast guard ship. How do these narratives sit with each other?

After many years of development, China, as a big country, has become richer. So, its military wants to become more organised so it can better defend China’s national security. Also, there is greater demand for China to perform various functions in global governance as part of maintaining world order.

So, it is only a matter of time before China makes efforts to build more and better weaponry. By conventional standards, China’s aircraft carrier is still quite modest in terms of capacity, especially compared to the United States fleet.

Ultimately, it is not (about) the aircraft carriers; the number (and) or the quality that is the most important: It is the intent. What do you want to do with it?

The US has a fleet of aircraft carriers, (but) nobody’s yelling very much about it. China only has one, and now people are saying that China is building another one. Then, a lot of people became worried.

The reason for that is probably (because) China did not have one before, and (now) China is in the process of transition. People are uncertain about what China will do with the aircraft carriers. It is understandable that people are concerned, however, if you judge by China’s behaviour, China has not done anything completely unexpected.

China certainly has taken a more proactive approach (on the South China Sea issue). However, China has made the claims for a long time (since the end of World War II), and has not exceeded previous claims.

In this regard, people probably need to give China more time. China is in the process of figuring out what its interests are, and how to play a role in the region and also in international society — not from a position of weakness, but from a position of strength.