Harry Harding, dean of the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University, said the United States must lend equal weight to its three primary interests in China -- stability, prosperity and human rights -- in a Cornell Political Forum symposium in Goldwin Smith Hall on Monday. Denise Weldon/University Photography
One of the greatest threats to positive U.S -- China relations may lie not in Beijing, but in the heart of Washington, according to several prominent scholars who spoke at a symposium in Cornell's Goldwin Smith Hall Monday night.
"It's a venomous atmosphere at the moment," said Harry Harding, political science professor and dean of the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University, at a symposium on China sponsored by the Cornell Political Forum and other student organizations. The current level of anti-Chinese sentiment in the nation's capital, he said, "is the worst that I have seen in virtually an entire profesional lifetime of studying China."
An international crowd of more than 200 people attended the symposium to hear from Harding; Vivienne Shue and Thomas Christensen of Cornell's government department; and Bruce Reynolds, a visiting professor of economics from Union College. The panel was moderated by Tsu-Lin Mei, professor of Chinese literature and Asian studies.
Harding called for greater sensitivity and subtlety in dealing with the Asian nation of 1,200 million.
"China is an extremely complex and diverse society," he said. "It is very difficult -- very defeating, in fact -- to paint it in black-and-white terms entirely as a success story or, as is more common today, as the most repressive and most reactionary society on earth."
Similarly, Shue noted that the drastic social, political and economic changes brought about by Deng Xiaoping have not had consistent results.
"The social scene in China today is filled to the brim with profoundly contentious and potentially very contradictory tendencies," she said. For example, greater freedom of religion has stimulated an "epidemic" of charlatans claiming healing powers. Freedom of movement has enhanced cultural exchange but also outbreaks of disease. Economic growth has brought opportunities for many but also has left tens of thousands of Chinese unemployed, following the bankruptcy of many state-run firms. Freer trade has stimulated increasing commerce in such goods as animal parts, human organs and illicit drugs.
For better or worse, China's economy won't slow down anytime soon, Reynolds observed. China's economic growth rate -- "an eye-popping 7 to 10 percent per year, per capita" -- is attributable not to any miracles, but simply to its being a late-comer to industrialization and therefore able to draw from an expanding technology pool, he said. In contrast to some other prominent economists, Reynolds predicted the growth rate will continue well into the next century.
"Ten years? Certainly," he said. "Twenty years? Conceivably."
Christensen predicted Beijing will maintain its collective leadership, but not easily. China's leaders are unified in their commitment to suppressing any moves by Taiwan toward autonomy, he said, but consensus ends there. "What should China do if Taiwan takes less provocative action? There's real intellectual disagreement on this in Beijing," he said.
He added, "There are fears that Congress will push a rather beleaguered Clinton administration into a tougher stance on China. If this happens, how belligerent will China's response be? That's hard to predict."
Harding, a former fellow at the Brookings Institution, sees two bipartisan U.S. policies on China: one of centrist Democrats and Republicans who favor active engagement, and another of more radical factions from the left and right calling for a tougher policy, with liberals focusing on human rights and conservatives on security issues.
One point is clear, he said: "China is becoming a political football. The Republicans are desperately looking for an issue
that can weaken the Clinton administration, and especially Vice President [and potential presidential candidate Al] Gore . . . . and they perceive China as a very emotional issue from which they can benefit." He added that emerging revelations about "Donor-gate," the scandal over the Clinton administration's accepting campaign funds from Chinese business interests, will only increase the Republicans' use of China as a political weapon.
Harding recommended a U.S. policy that gives equal consideration to its three primary interests, stability, prosperity and human rights; that assures goodwill; and that promotes integration in international bodies like the World Trade Organization and cooperation with nuclear test-ban, human rights and other international accords. He also called for strict enforcement of penalties, should China not comply with such accords.
"We must be consistent and tough-minded," Harding said. "China should be treated as neither friend nor foe.
"This kind of policy that I've outlined will require a degree of subtlety and complexity and sophistication that I don't always see in the American policy process," he added.