Home Updates Perspectives on China Undercurrents...

Undercurrents put pressure on friendship

 

Earlier this month, on April 13th, the United States President Joe Biden addressed the Houses of the Oireachtas, the Irish Parliament. During that address, he said that ‘peace is the necessary foundation for progress, for… growth.’

Of course he’s right. At the same time, powerful forces within the western intelligence and security institutions are pushing New Zealand to take sides in what is being portrayed as a global conflict between liberty and oppression, between democracy and autocracy, a conflict that could disrupt existing peaceful relations and tragically tip the Asia-Pacific region into open war.

In this ideological meta-narrative, the United States of America is presented as the standard-bearer of liberty and democracy and China as, well… oppressive and autocratic. Evidence for this includes accusations of alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China.

On May 5th, 2021, the New Zealand Parliament passed a motion condemning what members described as a ‘genocide’. Referring to China’s alleged actions in Xinjiang, Foreign Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta stated that ‘soon you will hear of their cruelty over the years.’ The Minister echoed these allegations as recently as March 2023 on the occasion of her visit to Beijing and in her meeting with leading Chinese diplomat Wang Yi — see it here.

As we approach the anniversary of the May 5 Parliamentary motion on Xinjiang — New Zealand’s most direct and multi-party censure of its most important trading partner — it seems timely to re-examine the basis of that condemnation, still being repeated in our diplomatic communications with China.

A recent publication painstakingly deconstructs the Xinjiang component of this meta-narrative and places it within a pattern of ‘atrocity fabrications’ exploited by the United States and others as a means to foster and ultimately cement in the public mind a negative perception of its rivals so as to justify military intervention.

In his book Atrocity Fabrication and its Consequences, British academic A. B. Abrams traces the history of atrocity fabrication as an instrument of western imperialism, culminating in a final chapter on the role of Xinjiang in the Sino-US conflict — seen here.

Abrams’ work exposes the construction of this Xinjiang meta-narrative in great detail, with detailed annotations and references. Other chapters trace similar mechanisms at work in regard to the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and elsewhere.

Peace, as the American President has reminded us, is one of the most precious things we have. Peace is not only the foundation for growth, it is the basis of international trade and finance, and the essential prerequisite for global cooperation on critical issues like climate change.

Our society, the New Zealand China Friendship Society, was founded as an expression of international peace and friendship. A meta-narrative that sets up the basis for conflict — and, worst case, open war — demands our most careful scrutiny.

In her condemnation of China’s alleged actions in Xinjiang in 2021, Minister Mahuta said ‘Kia kaua noa iho tatou e mohio ki te kahu o te wai. Uhi tai, uhi tai e.’ Translated from te reo, the passage reads ‘Do not focus on the surface of the water only. The tide flows, the tide flows.’

We would do well to heed the Minister’s words, although perhaps not in the sense that she intended them. Do not focus on the surface of the water only. There’s more going on here than meets the eye.

With thanks to NZCFS supporter, Trevor Johnston.