At the end of December, the Jiefangjun Bao, the official paper of the People's Liberation, carried a brief article on page three of the print edition – with a small revelation about a key principle of China’s foreign policy. The article described a speech delivered by Gen. Ma Xiaotian, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the PLA, to the China Institute for International Strategic Studies, a PLA-affiliated think tank in Beijing.
As reported, Ma’s remarks contained standard boilerplate for a year-end review: “China’s overall security environment was favorable,” but “will continue to undergo complicated and profound changes.” What came next, however, was unexpected. Ma used a revised version of the last eight characters of Deng Xiaoping’s famous “24 character” guideline for China’s foreign policy from the early 1990s: “keep a low profile and achieve something” (taoguang yanghui, yousuo zuowei). The reformulated version states that China should “uphold (jianchi) keeping a low profile and actively (jiji) achieve something.”
Ma’s use of Deng’s revised guideline in an official Chinese newspaper is important for several reasons.
First, it provides, in print, confirmation that Deng’s long-standing guidance has, in fact, been revised. President Hu Jintao made this revision to Deng’s guideline in the summer of 2009, but because it was the subject of significant debate, the revised text rarely appears in official media sources.
Second, despite media reports of the growing influence of the military in Chinese politics, Ma’s use of the revised foreign policy guideline reveals the consensus between party and military leaders on questions of basic policy principles, including foreign policy.
Third, it highlights the problem of using only English-language media from China. Although the use of the revised phrase is quite apparent in the Chinese version of the report, it’s translated in the English version as “keeping a low profile and making a difference” – suggesting that the guideline hadn’t been revised.
(For an excellent scholarly study of Deng’s guideline, see “Lying Low No More? China's New Thinking on the Tao Guang Yang Hui Strategy,” by Chen Dingdigng and Wang Jianwei from the University of Macao in the Fall 2011 issue of China: An International Journal)
M. Taylor Fravel is an Associate Professor of Political Science and member of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He can be followed @fravel.
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Frankie Fook-lun Leung
some of the magazines published about China in the Chinese language are quite authoritative on subjects not covered in the government approved media. Now with the social media quite vigorously utilized, I wonder whether those uncensored Chinese articles may be overtaken by the technology-savvied young readers. Even in china, private conversations are quite bold among the younger folks although the government is kind of relentless in controlling any group activities.
Liang1a
Deng’s dictum of “蹈光养晦” or “keeping a low profile” is a shame and disgrace. It provides the pseudo-intellectual basis for China to do the opening up which is nothing more than selling out the entire Chinese economy and ultimately the entire Chinese nation. China has become nothing more than an economic colony after decades of this treasonous betrayal. Future generations of Chinese will condemn this betrayal as one of the most heinous in the entire Chinese history. The Dengist rule is nothing more than a colloborative government similar to that of the Wang Jing Wei puppet under the Japanese imperial army. What is even more shameful is that China is now militarily very powerful and perfectly capable of being economically independent. Actually, China cannot advance further if it remained under the current foreign domination of its domestic economy. Deng had sold out the entire China just so that his children can go to the US. Deng’s betrayal is even worse than the sell out of Song Gao Zhong who gave away half of China.
I hope the next CCP government will be more patriotic. The best thing to do is for China to become democratic so that the Chinese people as a whole can tell the government which way to go. Even if the CCP eunuchs have lost their sense of honor and nobility the Chinese people as a whole have not.
Expert
@ Liang1a
Deng the wiseman who took China out of absolute poverty knew what he was doing when he ordered the future generation to hide its fang for the next 100 years and grow strength.
Hu Jintao ignores Deng’s policy and guess what happens? An Anti-China security alliance, the Asian version of NATO, is quickly being formed. Japan announced it would develop new weapons jointly with Korea, the enemy of Japan. Vietnam and the US are holding hands together and Vietnam is welcoming back the US military advisers in Vietnam. How could all this happen so quickly? Hu ignored Deng’s “Hide your strength for 100 years” policy!
Liang1a
Expert wrote:
January 19, 2012 at 11:02 pm
@ Liang1a
Deng the wiseman who took China out of absolute poverty knew what he was doing when he ordered the future generation to hide its fang for the next 100 years and grow strength.
Hu Jintao ignores Deng’s policy and guess what happens? An Anti-China security alliance, the Asian version of NATO, is quickly being formed. Japan announced it would develop new weapons jointly with Korea, the enemy of Japan. Vietnam and the US are holding hands together and Vietnam is welcoming back the US military advisers in Vietnam. How could all this happen so quickly? Hu ignored Deng’s “Hide your strength for 100 years” policy!
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Liang’s response:
Hu has been only following Deng’s policy dictum by perpetuating the Dengist policy of hiding the light. It is not Hu who is setting China’s policies but the king makers behind Hu’s back. Hu is just a figurehead without any real power and certainly without any original ideas of his own. China was secure for decades following the Korean War because the West and Japan was afraid of China’s proven military prowess and its iron resolve to defend the motherland. Also, after 1970 China developed a break with USSR and the US wanted to expolit that break by courting China against the USSR. But after the USSR broke apart, the US began to turn against China. A clear sign of this turn was the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yogoslavia. Since then America intensified its hostility and aggression against China. As soon as Bush became president he ordered the downing of the Chinese jet. Since then America has taken every chance to coerce China in every way possible to test and probe China’s resolve to defend itself as well as to squeeze more economic concession out of China. There is nothing that Hu could have done to prevent America’s turning hostile. That is simply a certain and inevitable policy direction based on America’s traditional anti-Chinese bigotry and hostility. The only thing Hu could have done to protect China is to increase China’s military powers and make clear demonstrations of China’s resolve to protect the motherland. But because Hu had shown repeated reluctance to defend the motherland by following the Dengist hiding the light policy dictum it had emboldened America to incite even more attacks against China. Therefore, the truth is it is the Dengist cabal within the CCP government that is endangering China by making it their first priority to enrich themselves and their comprador friends and making the defense of the motherland a very distant second or third priority. The sad truth is that even traditional “friends” of China are now distancing themselves from China because they don’t feel safe standing with China. If China wants to be safe and be respected not to mention rich and have many friends, then it must increase its military powers and show itself to be able and willing to make whatever sacrifices to defend the motherland. It must show that defending the motherland’s sovereignty is more important than to make money for its corrupt leaders and their sleazy comprador friends who are just as traitorous as the collaborators with the Japanese 100 years ago.
The truth is Mao’s victories had secured peace for China for 60 years. But Deng and his cowardly hide the light policy has endangered China by showing China to be as corrupt as the Qing Dynasty. Deng will go down in Chinese history as one of the most corrupt traitors. And the whole Dengist era will be condemned as one of the most shameful and farcical period of China’s entire history. China is now perceived by the world community as the human dog portrayed by Jet Li in his movie “Unleashed.”
Liang1a
It is shear nonsense to argue that it is because China is showing more “assertiveness” that its neighbors and the anti-Chinese West are now ganging up on it. Mao had shown much more “assertiveness” by actually fighting a very bloody war against the US in Korea and then follow that up by helping Vietnam defeat America in an even more bloody war in Vietnam. But what happened after these bloody demonstrations of China’s “assertiveness” and “aggressiveness”? America coddled up to China with ping-pong diplomacy to establish good relationship with it. But after decades of China’s opening up with abundant demonstrations of China’s spineless economic surrender to America, its enemies have now become increasingly hostile and invasive against China. Therefore, the truth is obvious. If China is strong then it will be safe and respected and have many friends. If China were weak then it will be held in contempt and be attacked and ultimately divided up like 100 years ago. It is clear that Deng is a traitor and his Dengist cabals are in the process of selling out China. Deng and the Dengists cannot be condemned in stronge terms. They are irredeemable traitors.