21 - 27 February 2002
Issue No.574
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 February 2002 Issue No.574 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
What he said, what he meant
US President George W Bush's recent visits to Japan, South Korea and China underline the importance of the region in the new US world view, writes Gamal Nkrumah
United States President George W Bush's recent tour of Asia -- which took him to Japan, Korea and China -- highlighted just how important the three northeast Asian countries have become on the international scene.
South Korean demonstrators protest US President George W Bush's visit (photo:Reuters)
Economically, of course, the region has emerged as one of the most dynamic. Even with Japan's economic recession, Tokyo is a major aid donor, a fact underlined by the recent conference about aid for rebuilding Afghanistan being held in the Japanese capital city.
Japan is the world's second largest economy, and the US president was careful to remind his hosts of the fact. "Japan has some of the most competitive corporations, some of the most educated and motivated workers in the world," he told them.
Unquestionably so, but Bush's words will do little to reassure ordinary Japanese, who are still painfully aware that their economy has seen better days. Despite Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's valiant efforts to arrest the pace of Japan's economic slowdown through a vigorous and all- encompassing economic reform programme, Japan's economy has so far given few signs of bouncing back.
Japanese unemployment has hit an unprecedented five per cent, and the country's gross domestic product (GDP) shrunk by one per cent in 2001. At the heart of Japan's economic malaise remains its troubled banking sector, which appears to be caving in under the weight of billions of dollars in bad loans. No surprise, then, that Japan's banking crisis was at the top of Bush's economic agenda during his visit.
Like in previous US-Japanese summits, trade was the main topic of conversation. Japan's trade surplus has plummeted by nearly 40 per cent, reflecting the fact that Japanese manufacturers are shifting their production overseas, especially to China where labour is far cheaper. A comprehensive plan for bailing out and recapitalising insolvent Japanese banks is currently underway, with an estimated $75 billion set aside for the purpose.
For its part, the US is urging Japan to be more innovative and creative in tackling the recession. White House Council of Economic Advisors Chairman Glen Hubbard recently cautioned Japan that it was not taking financial-sector reform seriously enough.
"There's no way Japan can export itself out of its problems without fixing its non-performing assets and changing its monetary policy," Hubbard warned.
President Bush, however, is no economist. In an unguarded moment, he let slip a remark about "devaluation" which, for a brief moment, caused panic in Japan's unsettled currency markets. The faux pas caused economic jitters in Japan, with the president's aides hastening to reassure the bewildered media that the remarks were "mis- spoken."
In South Korea and China, too, economic matters are expected to feature prominently, especially in China which has recently acceded to the World Trade Organisation.
On the political front, the US-led war on terrorism overshadowed all else -- pressing regional concerns such as the tensions on the politically-divided Korean peninsula notwithstanding.
Bush told his Asian hosts that Japan, Korea and China had a vitally important role to play in combating and containing terrorism. Japanese defence forces -- which, according to the country's constitution, can only fight to defend Japan itself -- provided logistical support for the US-led war against terrorism in Afghanistan. The Japanese have thereby violated the constitutional restrictions on sending troops abroad. Bush, not surprisingly, expressed his gratitude in no uncertain terms.
North Korea is still indignant about Bush's notion of an "axis of evil" which lumps it together with Iraq and Iran as a terrorist state. On the eve of his visit to the south, North Korea's state-run Radio Pyongyang made a point of lambasting what it called "US imperialists and Japanese reactionaries."
On arrival in South Korea via the high security US military base in downtown Seoul, Bush was greeted by Korean protesters brandishing placards which read: "Bush is a war maniac and an international hooligan." Police in riot gear staved off the demonstrators.
Tensions run high across the Korean peninsula, where some 37,000 US troops patrol the demilitarised zone that divides the north and the south. One possible solution to the stand-off there is being proposed by South Korean President and Nobel peace laureate Kim Dae-Jung. He is championing what he calls a "sunshine policy" of peaceful engagement with North Korea.
There were no big surprises in store for Bush's Asian interlocutors, however. As has become usual across the world, he urged the countries of northeast Asia to redouble their efforts in combatting terrorism.
Still, the three countries all have misgivings about various aspects of US foreign policy. All are critical of US disregard for the 1997 Kyoto Treaty on the global environment and of Washington's unilateral scrapping of the 1972 anti- ballistic missile treaty with the former Soviet Union and its successor, the Russian Federation.
To add to the grievances, China is critical of US interference in its domestic affairs and especially its human rights record.
Northeast Asia, of course, does not present a united face to US policy-makers. Differences -- political, social and economic -- between the three countries Bush visited are pronounced. While Japan and South Korea have whole- heartedly embraced multi-party democracy, the People's Republic of China still stands adamantly against adversarial parliamentary democracy which it summarily dismisses as a political system unsuitable for Chinese realities and China's current stage of development.
But perhaps the biggest stumbling block in Sino-American relations is Taiwan. Taiwanese President Chen Shui-Bian's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is widely regarded as a separatist party which aims to severe the umbilical chord between Taiwan and China, despite its obvious wish to strengthen economic and cultural ties with the Chinese mainland. The US's old role -- which it is sticking to -- is a determination to protect Taiwan from any Chinese military threats. China deeply resents the policy.
Few expect to see any radical change in either power's perspective on this sensitive matter. Nevertheless, most observers see Bush's visit as a golden opportunity to plaster over these differences and present a semblance of normalcy in relations with the US.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page