The Rediff Special /T Karki Hussain

The fall of the Soviet Union has further alerted the regime that China could be the next target

While ideological, geopolitical and now geoeconomic considerations have influenced the conduct of Chinese foreign policy, its context however, has been altered by recent developments. China's apprehensiveness toward the US has been palpable after the Tiananmen incident in June 1989.

China interpreted the demonstration as a product of conspiracy and collusion between domestic and foreign elements to change the Chinese political system. The fall of the Soviet Union has further alerted the regime that China could be the next target.

With the disappearance of the countervailing power of the Soviet Union, the US has now emerged as the sole superpower and finds itself in a position of unchallenged pre-eminence throughout the world. It is perceived as intimidatory and interfering.

Pragmatic as ever, China stresses its vital interest in good relations with the US by making tactical concessions on minor issues, while opposing its bullying tactics (e g, when Beijing insisted on a public apology and compensation for the Yinhe episode in which American planes and warships tracked the Chinese cargo ship though to be transporting chemicals to Iran).

China is searching for a counterstrategy to checkmate what it views as a potentially threatening position by the US. Interestingly, its manner of combating American demands is to display Chinese reasonableness in accepting correctives in the right spirit occasionally but standing up to any imposition or prescription from outside on political and human rights or arms sales.

The Chinese have also come out with a new definition of hegemonism. It may be recalled that from its inception till the early 1980s, China had swung from one external alignment to the other in order to find an equilibrium between the two superpowers. Hence the two-camp theory, the three world theory and the United Front strategy were in defiance of one superpower or the other, and China, guided by its threat perceptions at any given point of time, would choose the lesser evil as a strategic ally till the situation changed in its favour.

In short, hegemonistic conduct described the adversarial relationship in its totality, nothing less. According to a Chinese interlocutor, 'China now regards hegemonism as a policy or an action and not necessarily designating a specific country. China will oppose hegemonism on specific issues or cases regardless of whether it is pursued by a global power or a regional power. It does not mean that China regards that particular power as its enemy.'

This approach fits in rather well with its present 'omnidirectional' approach in foreign relations which underlines the multi-pronged, multi-layered diplomacy of seeking assistance and co-operation from the advanced states, building a network of economic interests with the newly industrialising countries and others who are not far behind, besides fence-mending and good-neighbourliness with the rest, based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence.

That China is evidently making good its promise of initiating benign diplomacy corresponding with the buoyant rhetoric alluded to above is reflected in its efforts to normalise political relations with some of the countries against which it had spearheaded a no holds barred diplomatic offensive, lasting several years at a stretch in the past.

Two of these countries ironically happened to be Marxist states -- the Soviet Union and Vietnam. The third was non-aligned India, with which China had co-initiated the Panch Sheel framework for bilateral interaction, and its leaders had briefly shared Nehru's vision of a common destiny built around Asian solidarity and co-operation.

Since China developed major differences with the three and remained at odds with them till very recently, its external behaviour was considerably shaped by its conflictual relationships. In the process, however, a regional policy also took some concrete shape.

Excerpted from India and Southeast Asia edited by Baladas Ghoshal, Konarak, 1996, Rs 150, with the publisher's permission. Readers may direct inquiries about the book to Mr K P R Nair, Konarak Publishers, A-149, Main Vikas Marg, Delhi 11 00 92.