Ostpolitik, China-style
April 19th, 2010
China may still see itself as a relatively poor developing nation struggling to gain global affluence; however, it’s neighbors are increasingly seeing a more muscular China that is willing to exert influence and wield military power at its borders. Wen Liao writes an opinion piece in the Financial Times that discusses the parallel between Baron Otto van Bismarck and his efforts to unify Germany in the late 1800s into a Prussian empire with China’s rise as the historical heavyweight it had always been until the early 1800s. Bismarck sought to balance the relations and perceptions of Germany’s neighbors to ease their anxieties over Germanic ascent in the region. Liao writes, “China’s dilemma is that, like Bismarck’s Germany, it surpasses in power all its neighbours combined (save for Russia with respect to its nuclear arsenal). To avoid the fate of the Second Reich, China must recognise and publicly accept that it is no longer a developing country but a global power with responsibilities that extend beyond its immediate national interests.”
Wen advises Germany to adopt a policy of “ostpolitik,” referring to the good neighbor policy in 1970 of then German Prime Minister Willie Brandt to negotiate with the Soviet Bloc of East German counties to open up trade and facilitate diplomatic relations. Though the Soviet Bloc was not afraid of West Germany’s rising economic power and its cosiness with the Americans, the charm offensive helped paved the way for the re-integration of East and West Germany, less than twenty years later.
With China politically and militarily bulging over its borders, wracking the nerves of Japan, Russia and India, not to mention Vietnam and the Philipines, as well, China needs its own brand Ostpolitik.
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