FUNABASHI - Asianização da Ásia

7/27/2019 FUNABASHI - Asianizao da sia

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The Asianization of AsiaToichi Funabashi

SEARCHING FOR A NEW IDENTITYA S I A HAS AT LONG LAST started to define itself. Asian conscious-ness and identity are coming vigorously to life. Western nations areincreasingly impressed by the economic power and political gravityof the region. But Asia's success in the far-ranging and relative termsof global competition should not obscure those forces, in internal andabsolute terms, now authoring a cohesive Asian worldview. Theemerging Asian worldview is not one of imperialist pretensions, ide-ological fervor, totalitarian paranoia or superpower hubristhoseideas are viewed as retrogressive approaches that fractured the regionfor most of this century. The Asian consciousness is animated byworkaday pragmatism, the social awakening of a flourishing middleclass and the moxie of technocrats, although still tinged perhaps byanticolonialist resentment, racism and indifference to civil liberties.Th is new Asian identity has social, cultural, economic and polit-ical implications. After decades of reserve on the international stage,now poised to assume a permanent seat on the U .N. S ecuri-ty Council, which would raise its diplomatic profile and influence.Efforts by Indonesian President Suharto to sustain and rejuvenate apost-Cold War version of the Nonaligned Movement bespeak aregional confidence and desire for autonomy. So does the conflictbetween Asia and the Western nations at the U.N. convention onhuman rights this year in Vienna. It made some participants, like


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PHOTOGRAPH BYPHILIP GORDON, R E A / S

''' Very modern, very Asian.S ingapore Foreign M inister Wong Kan S en, realize the extent of theAsianness for the first time. A few Asian nations, including Japan anKorea, supported the stand for universal rights taken by the UnitStates and E uropean countries, but India and the Philippines, twAsian democracies, were among those who argued tha t hum an righmust be considered in the context of the righ t to economic and socdevelopment. Charges of hum an-rights violations presented by oter countries, they argued, were attem pts to intervene in their dom etic affairs. M ost Asian political leaders m aintain that the most desable mode of democratization emerges spontaneously from economgrowth, which sparks political consciousness among a middle class

THE ELUSIVENESS OF UNITY


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The Asianization of AsiaMarco Polo were destroyed when they were plundered and exploitedby W estern colonial powers. In the 20th century the fleeting dreamof "Asia as One" entertained by the Japanese expansionists was shat-tered by the Allied victory in 1945. At Bandung, Indonesia, soon afterthe end of World War II, a framework for solidarity among thenations of Africa and Asia was created, bu t the union, based on reac-tionary anticolonialism and anti-imperialism, was frail, as the Chi-na-India border clashes in the early 1960s illustrated. In 1964 Chinabecame a nuclear power. The passing of Nehru, champion of peaceand harmony in Asia, sounded the death kneU for solidarity amongthe have-nots. The same year Japan joined the O rganization for Eco-nomic Cooperation and Development, solidifying its alliance notonly with the West but with the nations of the North. Whateversemblance of unity Asia m ight once have had was destroyed.

In the decades since, Asia has been little more than a geographicconcept. In the U .N . bureaucracy, the definition of Asia (or rather thelack of definition) can be seen in the composition of the AsianGroup, which includes nations from Yemen to Papua New Guineato M ongolia. Japan, which once dreamed of being the leader of Asia,was passed over in favor of Bangladesh in the 1978 election of non-permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Almost all thenations of Asia voted for Bangladesh.

During the Cold War, the wars waged by proxy on behalf of theUnited States, the Soviet Union, and China on the Korean Penin-sula, in Vietnam, and in Cambodia tore Asia apart. Nominallyregional organizations such as the Southeast Asia Treaty Organiza-tion and the Asian and Pacific Council, both now terminated, gavemore attention to Cold W ar ideology than to Asian unity. Since theend of the Cold War, some political commentators have suggestedthat Asia is being rediscovered or "re-Asianized." On the contrary,the spirit of these times is predominantly affirmative and forward-thinking, not reactionary or nostalgic. The region is not being "re-Asianized;" it is being Asianized.Some call attention to the remarkable economic development inthe "chopstick area"Japan, China, Korea and Vietnamdubbing


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Yoichi Funabashiregional development. Singaporean M inister for Information and thArts George Yeo has remarked, "In an era of'soft' nationalism, thshared emotion facilitates political and economic cooperation." Yebelieves that a distinctively Asian civilization, which carries on thtraditions not only of Confucianism, but Taoism and Mahayana Buddhism, is being born.

The economic vitality and interdependence now forming in thregion have given Asia confidence. Th e days when the United Statsneezed and Asia caught cold are over. Now, as Malaysian Vice M inister of Trade Chua Jui Meng boasts, even a high fever in Americwill not m ake Asia cough. Interes t is growinF c o n o m i c v i ta l it v a n d * Asian models of economic developmenSeveral tenets of international organizatioi n t e r d e p e n d e n c e h a v e exempUfied by the Asian Development Ban

A s i a n e w ^^^ ^^"^ seen as distinctive to the Asian regioeconomic development premised on politicstability; emphasis on education, infrastruture, agriculture, light industry and exportand dem ocratization muffled and deferred to suit the progress of ecnomic development. Philosophical and theoretical frameworks aforming around these models.In the private sector, models are rapidly being developed of "Asiamultinational corporations," which use Japanese quality-contromanagement style and technology. At a factory in the suburbs of NeDelhi, the Japanese automaker Suzuki and the Indian governmehave launched a joint venture to manufacture a car, the Maruti, fthe mass market. Unlike workers at other New Delhi factories, thentirely Indian workforce, from the factory manager to the janitorwear matching uniforms and lunch together in a huge dining haseating 2,000, a common scene in Japan. Asian corporate culture starting to exert its equalizing effects.Meanwhile, the cultural links between the middle classes of varous Asian countries are strengthening through the power of electroic communications technology. Asia, which lacks a common heritag


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The Asianization of AsiaNetwork was quick to create an Asia-wide entertainment network.O n its broadcasts, top-selling T ha i or Japanese singers croon the hitsongs of H on g K ong and G uan gdo ng. Un der pressure from Star TV,Indian Public Television has fought back by broadcasting Japan's hitdrama series, "Oshin," now shown in 30 countries, most of them inAsia. A Japanese children's cartoon whose popularity is now explod-ing in Vietnam is "Doraemon," about a group of contemporary chil-dren and their robot playmate. It is an optimistic, amusing portrayalof unassuming, middle-class children entranced and befuddled byfuturistic technology. Pirate editions of the cartoon book have beenbest-sellers in Vietnam and Thailand.

Self-discovery in Asia has historically occurred in the process ofconfronting the European-American challenge, and a similar psy-chological dynamic seems to be at work today. The EC'S steps towarda single-m arket "fortress," and U .S. steps toward a "N orth A m ericanGreater C o-prosperi ty S phere," have caused concern am ong A siannat ions. Malaysian Prime Minister M ah ath ir M oha m ad's call toform an exclusive East Asian Eco nom ic C aucus is no t so much astrategic concept as the crystallization of Asia's defensive stanceagainst these m oves in oth er parts of the wo rld. M oreover, the defen-sive origin of his concept means that it will surviveregardless of itsname, rationale or value in strategic bargaining and negotiations.

Yet regional awareness in Asia does not derive from reactive atti-tudes. Asia's "Asianization" is paradoxically the result of the global-ization of its econom y and m edia. As Asian nations ph ase ou t the s pe-cial relationships they have had with former colonial powers andintegrate with the global economy, they are starting to see neighbor-ing countries as trading pa rtners, providers of investm ent op po rtun i-ties and com petitors . Australia's moves to dissociate from Eu rop e a ndjoin Asia were motivated in part by Britain's joining the EC and thefading of the Ang lo-S axo n p rotective presence in Asia after the fall ofSaigon, but a more fundamental motive is that 70 percent of Aus-tralian exports go to Asia and the Pacific. The value of Australia'sexports to the ASEAN nations alone exceeds its exports to either theU nited States or the EC . T hi s is no t a result of Au stralian regional p ol-


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Yoichi FunabashiChina, which received a shot in the arm in the 1970s from itsneighbors' rapid economic growth, shifted radically toward internaeconomic reform and liberalization in the 1980s. Its engagement inthe world economy has produced a borderless network of Chinesemerchants inHong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The ChinesEconomic Area, consisting of China, H ong Kong and Taiwan, nowboasts a trade volume surpassed only by the United States, JapanGermany, France and Britain. The CEA is not based on a regionaagreement; its expansion is prompted solely by the market. Struggling to adjust to the unexpected opening of the Chinese economyand the decline of its oil revenues, Indonesia has already liberalized

terms for overseas investment. Socialist Chinas shift to a markeeconomy has encouraged Vietnam to follow suit, and the walls dividing ideological and political systems in Asia are gradually comingdown, albeit in a difFerent way than in Europe and Eurasia.

FENDING FOR THEMSELVEST H E NEW REGIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS in Asia also stems fromchanges in traditional security attitudes and frameworks. Since 1990diplomatic ties have been established between Russia and SouthKorea, and China and South Korea, and China has entered intodiplomatic relations with Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam. Indiahas strengthened ties with Southeast Asia. Japan now funnels financial assistance to Russia. The civil war ended in Cambodia andnation-building efforts have begun. The visit of the Japanese emperor Akihito to China in the fall of 1992 would not have been possiblwithout this newly created political and diplomatic context. All thesenew developments indicate a near-unanimity among Asian countrieon the eventual disengagement o fthe U.S. military from the regionAsian countries are now more readily consulting each other and d iscussing political and security issues. They deal realistically, not ideologically, with these new international circumstances. The Associationof Southeast Asian Nations Post-Ministerial Conference is now sponsoring a multilateral forum for dialogue on regional security, and th


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> The Asianization of Asiaa substructure for promotingas well as political deliberation.

Asian security cannot be considered separately from the regionalare former colonies or protectorates,and societal

a strong tendency to think of security notin military terms but as a synthesis of m ilitary, economic, tech-

become increasingly important. T he new view of security is alsoby Japan 's emergence as a global civilian power. Follow-n Japans footsteps, South Korea and Taiwan are emerging for-

of the century. Each of these nations will uses to strengthen their own security and buttress regional security.The growing self-confidence of Asian nations has brought with it

in Cambo-as a result of the U.N. Transitional Authority's settling refugees,ection monitoring and supporting the formation of the new Cambo-

itsot only in the economic realm but also in politics and secu-Cam bodia, remarked former Indonesian foreign m inister MochtarAsia's problems should be solvedAsians. Commitments by the United States and France, as perma-t members of the U .N. Security Council, were crucial in the Cam -a

pep talk. Nevertheless, there is a feeling among Southeastnations that interference by the big powers was the root of Cam -are developing an awareness of theires as regional players, a change they are eagerly pursuing.

SUCCESS AND ENVY and religious groups


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Yoichi Funabashi ,avoided in Asia. The lid long kept on similar emotions and powrelations by ideological control under the Cold W ar system has somhow been held in place by economic growth, but it is not the miraccure for all maladies. In some areas economic growth has actuaweakened the cohesion of Asian societies.

Over the last two years in India, policies prom oting economic lieralization have undermined the delicate balance of social forces lomaintained by the caste system and secularism. In China, the properity brought to coastal areas by rapid economic growth is leavithe inland provinces further and further behind. In Indonesia, ecnomic growth has promoted a "politics of envy" as its Chinese poplation flourishes by building on its traditional commercial base aexploiting the indigenous pribumi people. Government attemptsuse the Muslim element to counter this opposition could upset tdelicate balance between religion and the state.

The political and social structures of these three giant developicountries are vulnerable to identity crises of this kind. Within eathere are dangers of population explosion, environmental destructiand mass exodus of refugees. Tensions may also heighten between tConfucian, Hindu and Japanese civilization spheres, as political scietist Samuel Huntington suggested earlier this year in his article, "TClash of Civilizations." Th is might mean a struggle between Japan aChina over control of the Korean Peninsula and Indochina (especily Vietnam ). Cultural strains might also spark confrontation betweIndia and China over hegemony in Tibet and M yanmar.

IS REALPOLITIK INEVITABLE?P E R H A P S M O R E O M I N O U S is the possibility of geopolitical s trugles between such maritime nations as Japan, Indonesia, Austraand the Philippines on the one hand, and China and Centra l Asia the other. Should China fail in its pursuit of national prosperthrough coastal development, a Chinese "Monroe Doctrine" couregain m omentum, with China building a coastal "Great Wall" closto maritime Asia and splitting the region.


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The Asianization of Asiaand decide to use Hong Kong, soon to revert to Chinese sovereignty, asa base for military advance to the South China Sea and then to thePacific and Indian Oceans, tensions would inevitably emerge betweenChina and maritime Asian nations. China is expected to become a netoil importer next year and to depend on the M ideast for oil for a fairlylong time. Concern for the protection of its sea lanes for oil transporta-tion would be a natural outgrowth of this depen-dence. This could make China realize the impor- A frja^np-lc m a d c UD oftance of cooperating with other countries andcultivating economic interdependence. China ^ n i n a , J a p a n and thecould also, of course, revert to unilateralism and Uni t ed S t a t e s COuld bebuild a blue-water naval capability. In the latter ,. . il (inn2^et*oiis onecase, maritime nations' resistance to China would osurface. Those nations may also contemplate plansfor joint development at, say, the Makassar Strait off Indonesia, as analternative to the Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Sumatra.Even if such an apocalyptic scenario does not develop, Asia'sgrowth into a cohesive community depends on whether or not Japan,the United States and China can cooperate on an equal footing. Tri-angular relationships, by their nature, reduce international relationsto a zero-sum game: any of the three powers is apt to suspect the oth-er two of colluding to augment their bargaining power. A trianglemade up of China, with its despotic government and closed econo-my, Japan, with its ambiguous policy decision-making process, andthe United States, with its tradition of playing China and Japanagainst each other could be a dangerous one (reminiscent of the"Three Kingdoms" of ancient China, w hich were constantly at eachother's throats). The fact that the nature of power differs among thethree makes it more difficult for each to understand the other's inten-tions and capabilities.Whether Asia can play a constructive role in building a post-ColdWar economic order depends on whether it can further strengthen themultilateral, free and nondiscriminatory international trade system andopen market economy. Japan's responsibility in this endeavor is consid-


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Yoichi FunabashiAccomplishing that would strengthen the economic and trade tieamong Asian nations that lead to deepened global interdependence anfacilitate worldwide economic development and grov^ah. Japans lontime obsession with an East-versus-West view of the world, and thdefinitions that worldview subsumes, will gradually fade with integration into the world economy. If Japan does not change, Asia may finitself a prisoner of Tokyo's economic hegemony or caught in a web oeconomic collusion between Japan and China.

Another urgent task is to bring China into the GATT and famiiarize it with international rules. Failing to do so could allow thChinese economic sphere in South China and Southeast Asia tgrow into an increasingly exclusive "backyard" of the Chinese economy, a potential breeding ground for discord between Japan anChina over economic interests in the region. China must not be isolated. It must be incorporated into a multilateral security framewor

TH E IMPORTANCE OF BEING ASIANT H E ASIANIZATION OF ASIAincreased intra-Asian ties ancooperationcan strengthen the new world order. The regiondynamic growth, emerging middle class, gradual democratizationself-help discipline, open regionalism, self-confidence and healthoptimism can all be positive factors in shaping the new world order

Yet Asia should not be complacent. Asia should not delude itseinto thinking that its identity can be developed solely in regionterms, its economy sustained in a regional bloc, and its political ambtions fulfilled in regional integration alone. Asia's particulariapproach to human-rights issues, which seems to solidify Asian countries against the West, may well hamper Asia from building itself ina community with civic spirit beyond its national borders. Asia shouwork to reinforce the United Nations and ensure cooperation witEurope, Eurasia and the rest of the world. In particular, Asia shoulappreciate the United States and welcome its role of stabilizing thglobal economy and international security. By building a communithat includes the United States, Asia can ensure its position and sel


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The Asianization of Asiaoccur when Chinese and Indo-Chinese civilizations combine \\4thJapanese and American ones. The result may be an Asia-Pacific civi-lizationa new breed of cross-fertilized civilization.Signs that encourage cooperation with Asian endeavors and pro-mote engagement in the regions m ultilateral framework are emerg-ing in the U nited States as well. Th is participation is an urgent p ri-ority. In the 1970s the United States reshaped its strategy toward theSoviet Union by playing the China card (normalization of relationswith Beijing), and in the 1980s it beat the Soviet Union in the armsrace using the Japan card ("Japan money"). In the 1990s, it will nodoubt be the Asia cardeconomic stability and market grow th thatassures success in the revitalization of the U.S. economy.However, Asia will no longer put up with being treated simply asa card; it will now demand respect as a player. Its success stories arelikely to inspire and provide the voice for original, distinctly Asianideas on a host of issues: human rights; the debate over democracyversus economic development; the relationship of corporate enter-prises to the state, individuals to society, and society to the state; secu-rity in the new world order and in the region. Th e question facing theUnited States is whether it wiU be able to understand these ideas dis-passionately and coexist in harmony with Asian nations.

After the Cold War, history, geography, society and culture arebecoming instrum ental forces in the evolution of international po li-tics. Past U.S. attempts to understand Asia have focused on ideolo-gy, military power and m arkets. From now on Am ericans must seekto grasp many more diverse facets of this region in order to cultivateconstructive ties. The United States so far has not taken an isola-tionist stance toward Asia. As Richard Rovere and ArthurSchlesinger, Jr., po int out in their 1951 classic, The General and thePresident: And the Future o f Am erican Foreign Policyy "Among oceans,the Pacific has always been the favorite of American isolationists.This is true for the simple reason th at the Pacific is not the Atlantic.Isolationism is opposed to the introduction of Asian ideas' becausescarcely anyone has tried to introduce them." This situation maychange, for Asia hasfinallybecome willing and able to articulate dis-


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FUNABASHI - Asianização da Ásia

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