I Am A Chinese Citizen! Trolls, You Must Protect Me!

From the time of Rome through the eras of the British Empire and the American "Century," the citizens of assertive Great Powers have demanded their government protect them and their interests whenever threatened by the acts of "lesser breeds without the law."  And, so it is now with the thirty thousand or so Chinese living and working in Libya.

The WSJ reports that the Chinese version of Twitter is filled with demands for governmental action to assure the safety of Chinese and Chinese property in Libya.  Pictures as well as text accounts of the actions of "gangsters" harming Chinese abound in these and similar Internet postings.  In response, the Trolls of Beijing have stated they will take all necessary measures.  Don't you like the ambiguous phrasing?  That term "all necessary" can cover a multitude of options including the one the Trolls do not yet possess--a blue water naval capacity and the force projection ability such confers.

It is worth noting the Trolls have worked faster and more effectively to retrieve their citizens than has the Obama administration.  The Chinese have evacuated more than four thousand of their nationals primarily via chartered Greek flagged vessels.  The US has managed to stash a couple of hundred Americans including diplomatic personnel on a ferry which has not yet left port due to "high waves."  This means the Americans are still living under the guns of Gaddafi's hired hands with itchy trigger fingers.

The current violence in the Mideast has caught the Trolls both exposed and unprepared.  The Chinese presence in Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere in the region has increased geometrically in the past few years as Beijing controlled enterprises have proliferated in all areas of economic activity from resource extraction and agriculture to the sale of manufactured products both durable and consumer oriented.  At the same time the Chinese have taken a higher profile in the internal affairs of these states.

While not receiving much play in the American or European media, the Chinese have shown an ability to make themselves personally unpopular with the "natives" not only in the Mideast but elsewhere, most notably Africa.  The "native" press in a number of places over the past few years have compared the Chinese unfavorably not only with Americans but the previous colonials.  It appears that Chinese working in areas scattered around the globe have managed to engender a perception in the minds of the "natives" to the effect that China is a land of arrogant xenophobes laden with contempt for others.

Every now and then the local appreciation of Chinese manners and mores will hit the radar screen of Western MSM as in the case of the Chinese managers of a mine pulling and using guns with lethal effect on some striking workers who made so bold as to challenge the conduct of their "betters."  True, this was in the Congo, a place not noted for civilized behavior, but even the pathetic excuse for a government did take a dim view of gunning down strikers.  Not that the dim view resulted in prosecution, and the whole matter faded away covered by the shadow of Chinese money.

The Geek has great respect for both the age and unchanging nature of so much of Chinese culture and world view.  He has noted in prior posts the accomplishments of Chinese and the Chinese emperors in the days when Europeans were barely beyond painting themselves blue and tossing one another into the nearest bog, but the notion of the "Central Empire" which has colored Chinese attitudes toward all those so benighted as to have been born outside the sacred precincts of the Empire has never been a particularly admirable feature of the Chinese mental landscape.

After having been submerged by the all conquering wave of European (and, later, American) advance and expansion, it appears the ancient sense of "Central Empire" superiority has reemerged with a vengeance.  Powered by money flowing from the US and Western Europe as the inevitable and fully predicted result of the Clinton era fascination with "globalization," the old Central Empire is flexing its muscles in every conceivable way.  This includes treating the "natives" wherever they may exist with triumphalist contempt.

This context helps explain why the insurrectionists in Libya may target Chinese and their enterprises.  He who has not only cozied up with the dictator but also cocked the snoot repeatedly at the locals will not be the recipient of bouquets when the worm turns even a little.

One result of the clamor for protection coming from Chinese in Libya will be a move to increase the interventionary capacity of the Chinese military.  It is not as if the Trolls need any excuse.  The very impressive qualitative (and quantitative) increase in Chinese military capabilities has been underway even before the vast expansion in offshore economic activities.  The impact of the events in Libya and elsewhere will simply give a plausible justification for further enhancement of power projection capabilities.

This coupled with an ever more assertive Chinese diplomacy puts the squeeze on the US.  We can either assure a continued superiority in air, naval, and other, newer forms of defense capacities or we can accept the Chinese as an equal--or superior--in global affairs with all that implies to American freedom of action.  Given the perilous state of American fiscal affairs in the wake of the global recession and the inept attempts by the current administration to deal with both the recession and the installation of its own ideologically driven agenda, the defense budget is not likely to be up to the challenge.

There is no use in talking of how trade makes for good, peaceful neighbors.  The Chinese government is highly nationalistic in its definition and pursuit of interest.  It is also driven by the notion of the "Central Empire."  This implies that there will be many places and occasions where the interests of China and the US will not coincide sufficiently for conventional diplomacy to have any utility.  And, absent both a credible military capacity and the perceived political will to employ that capacity, no coercive diplomacy is or can be effective.

In a very real sense the US has a last best hope in the ability of the Trolls and the Chinese working abroad to make themselves detested.  We can and should take cheer in the attacks on Chinese facilities in Libya.  They are a symptom of the weakness of China--its Central Empire way of thinking.  To the extent that Chinese working in countries around the world can alienate the "natives" by their attitudes and actions, the US benefits, If at the same time Americans exhibit attitudes and undertake actions which convey our openness to others, our ability to listen and learn from the locals, our respect for the traditions and customs of the locals, we put more and more positive space between ourselves and the minions of the Trolls.

There are places and people where the US will not be able to make itself look good.  In spots like Pakistan, there is no hope the locals will abandon quickly or easily the decades of increasing hatred of all things American.  But, there is reason to hope--even believe--that the Chinese will be able to make themselves even more disliked, distrusted.

Admittedly it ain't much.  But, given the current realities--including the dilatory conduct of the Obama administration in the face of what has been happening in Libya and the Mideast generally--we do not have much else going for us.  Disgusting, isn't it, bucko?