China Reactions to Obama’s Asia Tour: Overwhelmingly Negative

Reactions to President Obama’s recent Asian tour in China’s state-run media have been overwhelmingly negative. This should come as no surprise to anyone. Of particular irritation to China were a U.S.-Japan joint statement confirming that the allied nations’ security treaty applies to all territories administered by Japan, including the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, and a U.S.-Philippines defense agreement boosting America’s troop presence in the Southeast Asian nation. Revealed in Chinese reactions to Obama’s Asian tour is a China that lives in a world entirely of its own imagination, a place called Planet China, innocent and virtuous but beset by malicious troublemakers.

“U.S. shows its true colors,” announced an editorial in the English-language China Daily. “It is increasingly obvious that Washington is taking Beijing as an opponent,” said the editorial, taking aim at America’s alliances with Japan and the Philippines. “Ganging up with its troublemaking allies, the U.S. is presenting itself as a security threat to China.” The editorial accused the United States and its “malicious” allies in Asia of projecting a “threatening image of China” in a concerted “attempt to contain China’s influence in the region.” According to the editorial, however, these efforts will ultimately fail: “Washington must come to terms with the reality that China will continue to grow, though it will not follow the U.S.’ hegemonic path.”

“Extending the U.S.-Japan security treaty to [the Diaoyu/Senkaku] islands is both morally and legally wrong,” said another China Daily editorial, “Obama should not expect Chinese connivance in his turning a blind eye to Japan’s thievery and its claims of innocence…. By tacitly endorsing Japan’s actions, [Obama] is giving [Japanese Prime Minister] Shinzo Abe carte blanche to continue destabilizing the region.” In both China Daily editorials, China assumes moral and legal high ground that no one else seems to recognize, and claims innocence while placing the blame for tensions in the East China Sea entirely on Japan and the United States.

“The U.S. and Japan are playing with fire in Asia,” said an editorial in the English edition of People’s Daily. This editorial likewise accused the United States of conspiring with its “puppet” Japan to “constrain China’s development.” Likewise also, however, this editorial confidently insisted that America and Japan “will benefit nothing from stirring up trouble” in Asia. Here, as elsewhere, China presumes to speak for all of Asia when in fact it is only making Chinese claims. China’s neighbors in Asia beg to differ.

People’s Daily also highlighted “indignation” expressed by Chinese netizens following the U.S.-Japan joint statement. “The Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea have been an integral part of Chinese territory for centuries,” said one netizen quoted by People’s Daily, “The U.S. has no right to interfere.” Unfortunately for this netizen, the uninhabited islands in question have never been “an integral part of Chinese territory,” no facts on the ground support China’s claim to them, and they have been under Japan’s explicit administration for more than a hundred years. There are islands in the East China Sea — such as the Zhoushan Islands off the coast of Zhejiang Province — with Chinese people living on them and to which China has an indisputable claim as “an integral part of Chinese territory.” This is not the case with the uninhabited, Japan-administered Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands.

Said another netizen quoted by People’s Daily: “The U.S. makes a song and dance about freedom and democracy. But the Diaoyu Islands are Chinese territory…. You have to understand other people’s rules when you come to their home. Insist on being thoughtless, and exceed the boundaries of courtesy, and you will pay the penalty!” Obama didn’t visit China on this trip to Asia, but this netizen appears to believe that any place one visits in Asia is China’s “home” and subject to China’s “rules.”

China’s displeasure at the U.S.-Japan joint statement was matched by its displeasure at Obama’s defense agreement with the Philippines. “Given that the Philippines is at a bitter territorial row with China, the move is particularly disturbing as it may embolden Manila in dealing with Beijing,” said another People’s Daily editorial. “It is noteworthy that the Philippines has been a trouble-maker in the South China Sea. It has encroached upon Chinese territory and harassed Chinese fishing boats.”

It is noteworthy also that the territories in dispute are far closer to the Philippines than to China, and that China’s claim to these territories is based on nothing more than a few old books that could just as easily have claimed the moon as a “Chinese discovery” and as “indisputable Chinese territory.” Noteworthy, too, is that China is viewed as a “trouble-maker” by far more countries in the region than are the Philippines.

Chinese reactions to Obama’s tour of the Asia-Pacific region confirm once more that China has constructed its own version of reality, making up its own facts as it goes along and seeing only what China wants to see. Too bad the rest of the world refuses to live on Planet China.

Image credit: Market Oracle