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The spy plane crisis
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Dana and Chris Jeffreis (center) Fulbrighters in Nanjing
April, 2001
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In Shanghai this spring, the worst problem we encountered is
road construction. Streets large and small are torn up and blocked
off, so taxi rides that used to take 20 minutes now take an hour
or more at the wrong time of day. The taxi drivers, lik emost
Shanghainese, are friendly and helpful, careening along narrow
streets to find the routes with fewest workers and dumptrucks
halting the flow of traffic.
But recently we have received worried e-mail messages from friends
in the States who are afraid the spy plane crisis of April 1 and
President Bush decision to sell arms to Taiwan have spurred angry
mobs to demonstrate outside our apartment.
In a word, it has not happened. We have experienced no change
in the attitudes of our students, colleagues, neighbors and shopkeepers.
Everyone is as cheerful and helpful as ever.
The Chinese, of course, feel strongly that the United States
is responsible for the death of pilot Wang Wei in the plane incident.
While the Chinese press reports that the U.S. aircraft caused
the collision, the Western press reports that Wang Wei caused
it. There can be little argument about whether the U.S. plane
was spying on China -- regardless of whether the plane was in
international airspace or not, it was gathering intelligence on
the Chinese military, which is spying. If you were Chinese, which
would you believe -- the account given by your own news media,
or the account given by a spying country media?
The fact that the United States sends planes at all offends and
embarrasses the Chinese people. In ways that are difficult for
Westerners to understand, the Chinese feel they lose dignity and
stature when spied on without consequence, and feel they are being
pushed around. To the Chinese, Wang Wei was killed pushing back,
a sacrifice any country would applaud, and they rally to his courage.
Chinese friends tell us that furious messages have been posted
in Internet chatrooms, by people who most likely already harbor
resentment against "foreigners" for understandable historical
reasons. And the Chinese government has used the spy plane incident
to regain some dignity, at the expense, unfortunately, of the
United States. But relatively few Chinese desire revenge on Americans,
and the alarmed e-mail messages from home suggest that certain
aspects of China reaction have been misrepresented by Western
media.
For example, the expression "Red China" has been used. This is
a phrase from the Cold War, which described an attitude toward
politics, economics and society that in practice no longer exists
here. The Chinese government is run by members of the Communist
Party, of course. But the communism of Mao Zedong has been disappearing
for years. In fact, criticism of Mao policies is now part of Chinese
education. China is energetically seeking to become a player in
world capitalism.
Signs of this energy are unmistakable in Shanghai, and elsewhere.
Billions of yuan are being invested in office and residential
buildings that Western businessmen, diplomats and their families
are expected to use. Money is pouring into English-language training
for everyone from politicians to waiters. Privately owned shops
line Shanghai streets. Foreign-owned department stores, McDonald,
KFCs and Pizza Huts occupy prime locations all over the city;
seven Starbucks cafes are going strong. Recently I was asked to
speak to a thousand people about Wal-Mart because that company
is preparing to build supercenters here. This is not Red China.
It is a country of people who are fascinated by American culture
and business practices, and want to participate. And the fact
is, China government is cautiously encouraging them to do so.
The Bush administration, however, is puzzling people here with
its apparent determination to refight the Cold War. American planes
flying along China coast are one kind of threat, but proposing
a potentially destabilizing anti-ballistic missile defense while
arming Taiwan for war unsettles all Chinese. All of China wants
a mutually beneficial reunification of Taiwan and the mainland,
not war. This winter, a ferry from Xiamen transported Chinese
to Taiwan to visit relatives they had not seen since 1949: This
is what most Chinese people hope and expect to see. They view
the sale of arms to Taiwan as a bewildering effort to prevent
reunification.
In October, Shanghai will host a major meeting of APEC -- an
event so important to the world economy that President Bush is
scheduled to attend it. In preparation, Shanghai is busily improving
everything from roads to water systems. Beijing meanwhile is working
diligently in hopes of hosting the 2008 Olympics.
China is not America natural "adversary," as one BDN letter
writer misguidedly asserted, but a culture struggling to meet
the monumental and dangerous problems of transforming its economy
and society. They need our intelligent guidance, not our belligerence.
Please contact us
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