Review of Asian Studies

The 14^th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has served for 60 years. He is the most influential figure to Tibetans, both inside and outside Tibet. They believe that he is the reincarnation of his predecessor^iv. The Dalai Lama always calls for greater Tibetan autonomy, democratic changes, and changes in China’s legislations. China continues its communist rule; imprisoning and suppressing ethnic groups like Tibetan followers of the Dalai Lama. Also, Chinese government wants to control the selection of the next Dalai Lama after the death of Tenzin Gyatso and all the high monks in Tibet (Economist). This course of action has been highly opposed by Tibetans and the United States. China is waiting for the 73-year-old Dalai Lama’s death, which will be followed by fractional movements of Tibetan followers (Sutter 262).

The Republic of Korea (ROK) and the U.S. have had a close relationship that is deeply rooted in politics, cultural and personal tie. The ROK is highly dependent on the U.S. economically and it has a strong military alliance with The ROK has sent many of its own troops to support American forces in the Vietnam War as well as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (Sutter 60-61). There are also many Koreans living in the U.S. who create various non-government organizations supporting US-ROK relations. However, this relation has slowly deteriorated from the start of 21^st century because the U.S. and the ROK differ on issues pertaining to North Korea and their advancements in nuclear weapons research (Niksch 12).

Since 1990s, the ROK leaders’ policies toward North Korea have fluctuated. After the end of the Cold War, the fear of North Korean invasion had declined (Pritchard 101-45). Therefore, ROK leaders pushed for more moderate policies such as inter - Korean dialog, which went against the U.S. stance. Then later in 1990s, there were errant U.S. bombing exercises that damaged a South Korea village. The relationship continued to deteriorate and it a low point in 2004. A survey at the time revealed that Korean citizens believed that the U.S. was a bigger threat to stability than North Korea (Niksch 12). Starting in 2003, the Bush administration decided to re-allocate US troops all over the world and withdraw them from South Korea while still maintaining its commitment to protect South Korea in emergency situations (Sutter 77). The ROK government was so concerned about the implication of such troop reduction that it tried to slow down the reallocation. Ultimately, the U.S. and the ROK reached an agreement that the troop reduction will take place after October 2009 but before March 2012 (Sutter 76).

China joined the United Nations as the People’s Republic of China in 1971. It became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. China is more interested in what the UN can do for it rather than what China can contribute to the United Nations (Sutter 206). Therefore, there is no longer the fear of China’s use of its veto to oppose international issues, besides what relates to China. Sharing the same interests with America, China works in the United Nation on peacekeeping, maintaining a predictable and rule-based international order. Moreover, China is now an important participant in many international organizations with ties to more than 100 countries in the world. All together, China is now one of the most powerful countries in international affairs (Sutter 276).

Since the terrorist attack on September 11^th, 2011, the Bush administration launched the Global War on Terrorism. Along with the Iraq war, these campaigns have increased the national budget deficit, resulting in a national debt crisis for the United States (Bush and O’Hanlon). Worse still, these wars have made many people wonder if the U.S. can still be the world leader since China’s international influence is rising. The global war on terrorism is the first consideration that strongly affects the U.S. – China relationship and the United States’ role in issues in Asia (Sutter 97).

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President Obama was inaugurated into office four years ago, facing domestic and foreign problems: a prolonged economic crisis, the U.S. preoccupation in the Middle East and Southwest Asian region and the North Korea nuclear issues. The Global War on Terrorism has been seriously criticized because of its core motive and little overall results. Along with Asia-Pacific countries, the U.S. has increased collaboration with the major economies such as Japan, China and South Korea even though there is still a large trade deficit in Asia in general and with China in particular. Also, because of high levels of economic interdependence between these countries and the U.S., the U.S. does not gain much from pushing controversial policies. The North Korean nuclear issue is a top priority of the Obama administration. The U.S. has been working closely with other Asian allies and the United Nation Security Council to control the escalating provocative move of North Korea. However, there are few optimistic views believing that the situation in North Korea will subside. Luckily, the Taiwan Strait is quite stable because of Taipei’s positive attitudes towards China. Another significant issue is China’s military modernization, which has caused hesitation and difficulties in every move of the U.S. in Asia. On the bright side, the U.S. is working more and more closely with Asian allies in both politics, military and economic areas as mutually beneficial relations. This cooperation helps the U.S. gradually gain its influence in Asia, and helps other Asian countries to work positively with the rise of China’s power, but still keeps close ties with the U.S. for national safety.

China military modernization has always been a hotly debated topic in the Sino – American relation. For more than a decade, China’s defense budget has been two digit percentages of its GDP. In 2008, its defense budget was 17.6% of the national GDP while that of 2009 was 14.6% (chart 1). China took the complex international situation and conflict of interest with Taiwan as excuses for its military modernization. While China said its military modernization is to keep peace in the region and in the world, its comprehensive transformation has been very aggressive. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the largest army in the world, was said to be able to fight in any type and front. China has developed its electro-optical and radar devices as well as satellites to carefully monitor U.S. military movements. It also developed anti-ship ballistic missiles to fight on disputed water regions (the Yellow Sea, South China Sea) and deployed the naval force to the Gulf of Aden in order to protect its commerce with Africa. Still, China has gained a lot of support from 400 companies to develop its own weapons, which mean that China wants to fully develop its defense ability. Nonetheless, that also means China still has a long way to go in military modernization when it hasn’t been able to develop weapons it-self. Besides developing and enhancing its troops and weapons, China also expands its military ties with other Asian countries, having joint military exercise with Singapore and Thailand. During the China Communist Party 60^th anniversary in 2009, there was the largest China military parade, showing the world its military power with a variety of weapons and troops. China said it displayed the image of “a might force, a civilized force, a victorious force.” China has been aggressive by continuing to modernize its military (sea trial of aircraft, developing ballistic missile and cyber warfare). In April 2011, China’s first aircraft carrier was embarked on a sea trial, proving the growing naval power. However, Western countries have had more than 70 years experiences in developing weapons while China has only 15 rapid years. Also, the spending per troop per year of the U.S. is about $420,000 and that of China is about $40,000 (ten times different). Moreover, the population per troop, which is the number of citizens that each troop protect, of China is about three times that number of the United States (table 1&2). Therefore, although China is aggressively modernizing its defense ability, it is still less capable than the United States’ military forces.

“As a political joke goes, the good news about relations between China and the United States is that there is only one contentious issue between them; the bad news is there is no solution to the problem.” (Zhu 180)

In general, the U.S. – Japanese alliance is one of the most stable and important alliances. Japan has always been an important trade partner of the U.S. in Asia; supporting troops for the U.S. in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. However, starting from the sharp decline of the Japanese economy in the 1990s, the U.S. has lost its interest in Japan and turned its eyes from Japan to the growing power of Asia: China. The United States has been claimed to have left Japan out of the core talks and given Japan less attention. In the Six Party Talk, Japan and the U.S. both used to have strong opposition against North Korea. However, the Obama administration has been soft-pedaling with the North Korean nuclear issues, leaning toward China’s and South Korea’s political stance.

In a different perspective, Japan should have a reform/change in its foreign affairs strategy to be “Japan bashing” again. For the time being, Japan is facing problems of “post industrialization”, such as consumption saturation, an aging population, slow economic growth, and rising fiscal expenditure and national debt balance. In short, Japan is in a structural dilemma in terms of population and finances, for which political conservatism is to blame. Japan had always used its economic power as a “political power”. However, after the economic stagnation in the 1990s, conservative views about Japan’s economy turned out to be wrong. Japan should be more open-minded, learn from the past and develop friendly relationships with other East Asian countries. Also, Japan should rethink its spending on defense, which is the fifth highest in the world while its economy is ranked in third place. Being able to overcome the defense budget issues, the Japan – U.S. alliance will surely be improved, bringing benefits to both Japan and the U.S. Also, while China’s influence in Asia and military power are increasing rapidly, it is crucial for Japan and America to continue to work closely and maintain strong international relations.

The term economic interdependence means that two countries are mutually dependent on each other’s economy for products and services. This has been the situation between the U.S. and China. The economic ties between two countries have expanded significantly in the past decade. China is now the U.S. second largest trade partner and biggest source of imports. Most notably, the U.S. has the largest merchandise trade deficit with China, rising from $10 billions dollar in 1990 to $273 billions in 2010 (chart 2). Worse still, both the U.S. and the IMF believe that the Yuan of China has long been undervalued, creating trade unfairness in the international market. Unlike other economies (market based floating exchange rate), China applies restrictions to manipulate the Yuan and keeps its value very low against the dollar (at a range of 15% to 50%). This manipulation helps China to decrease the effects of the global crisis and increase exports. This also explains the sharp increases in China foreign exchange reserve and trade surplus. The economic interdependence largely affects the U.S. policies in Asia and toward China and makes the relation more complex. ^vii

In 2008, China released its national plan on human rights, which focused on improving people’s living standards and social equality rather than any type of freedom. China stated that it is willing to follow the international norm but the U.S. must take into account the differences between the two countries. In 2008, there was a crackdown in Tibet against an anti-Chinese group. However, China did reopen Tibet for tourism in 2008 and China’s Tibet airline in 2010, which is said to be safe and stable. But in general, nothing has changed much in the human right issues even though China said it has achieved enormous progress in this area. Also, China firmly opposes any U.S. reports about its human rights, saying that the U.S. is interfering in China’s domestic affair.

Amid the serious global economic crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the North Korea nuclear issue, the U.S. has treated human rights issues in China as a secondary concern. While the U.S. is the only country capable of dealing with this issue, Hilary Clinton, on her first trip to China as the Secretary of State, upset several reporters and activists when stating that human rights issues will not hinder U.S. – China relations. However, the Obama administration believes that soft line works better and they have created better results in other issues with China. Many activists worried that President Obama and Hilary Clinton have gone too far that can set a pattern in human rights issues, which they will regret later. In November 2009, Mr. Obama’s first trip to China has caused lots of activists to go to jail. However, the president took a soft line toward human right issues, which disappointed activists and was a missed opportunity. The fact that Google’s computer system in China was attacked and that the Dalai Lama visited the White House gave the activists hopes of a change in Obama’s policy toward human right issues. In May 2010, the U.S – China dialogue about human rights not only freed China of any obligation, but also allowed China criticize the U.S. about human right issues. During the talk, both sides briefly talked about their human rights progress and the U.S. saw positive changes in China. However, more or less there was almost nothing gained after the dialogue. In the talk in January 2011, the U.S. and China talked fast about their differences, especially the human rights. President Obama was happy with an agreement reached about the expected export with China, which can create 250,000 U.S. jobs. Because of the effort to boost up the economy, the president put aside the human rights issues with China even though he reiterated that human rights are the core views of the U.S. and that they are not soft-pedaling on these issues.