It was Jimmy Carter who established full diplomatic ties with China in January 1979, against the strong opposition he faced in the US Congress. - AFP
BEIJING: On a bright September day in 2003, former US president Jimmy Carter told a small audience of 150 students and faculty at Peking University that “democracy is not a scary thing”.
The venue was a beautiful old building – sloped roof, lattice windows and vermilion columns – but small, for a reason.
The Chinese leaders did not want to stop Carter from speaking on his chosen subject of democracy but did not want him to speak to a large audience either.
The former American leader did not abuse the hospitality of his hosts; he did not criticise the Chinese government.
Instead, he lauded the sweeping changes that had taken place since China started reforms in 1978 and the new openness in Chinese society.
But he did remind his young audience of the 1919 May 4th Movement that began at their university and sparked debate on democracy in China.
ThatCarter was allowed to speak on democracy at all was a reflection of the relative openness of China at the time but also because the Chinese regarded him as a friend.
For it was Carter who established full diplomatic ties with China in January 1979 – which also meant severing formal relations with Taiwan – against the strong opposition he faced in the US Congress.
Carter, who died at the age of 100 on Dec 29, completed the normalisation process begun by then President Richard Nixon who, through his visit to China in 1972, ended more than two decades of no communication or diplomatic ties with the communist country.
Explaining Carter’s decision, Professor Shi Yinhong from Renmin University said: “Jimmy Carter realised very clearly that China was a major element in world politics and political economy and was engaging in liberal reform under Deng Xiaoping.”
The President also took the long view in making the decision, noted Professor Emeritus David Lampton from John Hopkins University, adding that Mr Carter believed “America’s best approach to that complex and ever-changing country is fostering positive voices and trends, finding common ground, implementing a policy of patience”.
While Carter paid a political price – many believe this move was one of the reasons he failed to get re-elected in 1980 – “his wisdom has paid off handsomely for America, China, Asia and the world during the 45 years since”, said Prof Lampton in January 2024 at a commemoration of the momentous event in 1979.
The last 45 years have been marked by relative peace in the East Asia and Pacific region, although tensions have risen as rivalry between the US and China intensifies.
Prof Lampton also noted that Carter believed in building not just a state-to-state relationship, but also a society-to-society one, “a thick fabric of inter-agency, locality and non-governmental ties knitting the two societies together”.
This included taking in Chinese students to study at American universities.
People’s Daily senior journalist Ma Shikun, in a 2015 article on the China Focus website, noted that many Chinese still remember a story Carter once told. It went thus: The President was woken up at 3am one morning by a phone call from his national science adviser who said Deng had insisted that he call the President to see if he would permit 5,000 Chinese students to go to American universities. Carter’s reply was “tell him to send a hundred thousand”.
Even amid the tense bilateral relations of today, there are more than 280,000 Chinese students in US colleges.
Carter’s taking the long view on China has meant that his engagement with it continued long after he left office in 1981.
The former president did not visit China during his tenure in office, but he visited the country more than 10 times in a span of nearly 30 years after that.
His non-profit, The Carter Centre, which promotes peace, democracy and health worldwide, set up the China programme in the late 1980s to provide help in special education and to the disabled.
The programme from the late 1990s focused on grassroots democracy after being invited by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs to observe village committee elections, providing help in educating voters and training election officials.
Carter also sought to be a voice of moderation back home in the US.
In an op-ed in The Washington Post in 2018, as the trade war between the two sides raged, he urged a balanced approach towards China so that the two sides can “continue to work together towards solving some of the most intractable global problems”.
All this is not lost on the Chinese. Said Prof Shi: “The Chinese have much appreciated his contribution (in normalising ties with China) and his positive actions in relation to China since his retirement.”
Carter’s own lack of airs has also disarmed the Chinese. “He does not say ‘the US is good and you must learn from us’, but gives his advice as a friend,” Deng Xuan, then 23 and a graduate student, noted to this reporter in 2003 after Carter’s speech at Beida.
But the winds of change began to blow in 2009 after China’s triumphant success in hosting the 2008 Olympics and the 2008-2009 global financial crisis damaged the image of Western capitalism.
China grew more assertive internationally and the US began to criticise what it saw as Beijing’s attempt to revise the international system, which, in turn, invited China’s accusation that Washington was trying to contain its rise.
The change was felt keenly during Carter’s trip to China in 2014 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of normalisation.
Carter usually met China’s top leaders during his trips there, from paramount leader Deng Xiaoping to presidents Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping.
But in 2014, he saw neither Xi nor Premier Li Keqiang.
Instead, at a banquet at the Great Hall of the People, Vice-President Li Yuanchao as the host gave a short speech that “had none of the actively friendly tone that characterised meetings 35 years before”, wrote American academic and writer Orville Schell who was present.
The China programme’s work on political reform came to an end in 2012. Instead, in its new identity as China Focus, it fosters greater dialogue, exchange and critical reflection on the US-China relations through its research and engagement activities.
Now, with the passing of Carter, is the era of the two great powers looking beyond their many differences to find common ground at an end?
Amid the hostile rhetoric – American analysts writing that the US’ competition with China must be won, not managed, and Chinese scholars saying that the best the two sides can do is avoid conflict – it can appear so.
Yet, there is a glimmer of hope.
Xi wants 50,000 young Americans to come to China to study over the next five years. That can only help to foster understanding between the geopolitical rivals.
The legacy of Carter’s strategy of strengthening society-to-society relations may yet endure. - The Straits Times/ANN
