Time to engage China in its terms

One of the great dualities in life is that while none of us like having a boss, all of us have to learn how to develop a good relationship with our boss.

The West likes to pretend that it has no aim of being the boss of the world, but in reality, it likely delights in playing the role of the boss in the world.

We might believe that South China Sea is owned by no one, and that the SEA nations, being the nations that border the South China Sea, has certain rights to own and control parts of the South China Sea, but we only believe this because the West has told us that this is what we should believe in.

Make no mistake – we have no inherent right to own or control any parts of the South China Sea. We only do so, because the West has told us that we have such a right, and the West has the power to tell us so, only because for the longest time, it was the West that has ruled the world.

Today, all of this might be changing.

The West is in a state of deterioration and decline. In another 10 years, it might not be the West that will rule the world any longer. When the West no longer rules the world, what the West says about the South China Seas will also no longer matter.

We must remember, that the belief that the SEA nations have a right to deem parts of the South China Sea that extend a couple of hundred kilometres from their sea shore as their Exclusive Economic Zone ( EEZ) or that SEA nations have certain right over the South China Sea on account of being its littoral states or that any dispute amongst nations of the world is to to be settled in the International Court of Justice are only valid for as long as the West rules the world.

When the West doesn’t rule the world anymore, these beliefs and concepts will lose their power just as how the opinion of one’s boss will lose its relevance once they lose their position as the boss.

Before the age of Western Colonisation, it was medieval China that used to be the nation that ruled the South China Sea n. We know this to be a fact just from the name of the South China Sea. The reason the South China Sea is called the South China Sea is because it was China that dominated the South China Sea before the age of colonisation.

That China was instrumental in establishing the Sultanate of Malacca, the Sultanate of Brunei and the Sultanate of Sulu is another proof that China was the dominant power in the South China Sea before the advent of the Colonial Age. The very reason that China established these Sultanate’s in the Nusantara region is to exert its dominion over the South China Sea.

In the same way that China ceded control of the South China Sea to the Western Colonial Powers when it declined while the West rose in power, in the next 10 years, it will be the West that will likely have to cede control of the South China Sea to China as it goes into decline and China rises.

When this happens, it is what China says about the South China Seas that will be the law. Right and wrong will no longer be interpreted according to the Western frames of references but the Chinese frames of references.

We already know this is going to happen because China is already disregarding what the International Court of Justice in Hague has ruled about its actions in the South China Sea. When a nation disregards the ruling of the ICJ, that nation is only in the wrong if that nation is weaker than the West and if the West can punish it. If the West can’t punish it, because that nation is not weaker than the West, it means that that nation is not in the wrong.

The fact that the West cannot punish China for its actions in the South China Sea means that it is China that there is a great likelihood that China is going to be the lawgiver in the South China Sea in the near future, as it once was in the medieval times.

Just like it will be foolish of us to tell our new boss that what they are doing is wrong because what they are doing is not what our old boss did, it will be silly of us to tell China that it has to respect our Exclusive Economic Zone or right as a littoral state or the ruling of the international Court of Justice, simply because that is what West did in the past.

The right to set the law belongs to the one that rules. When the new boss takes control from the old boss, they have no obligation to run the show according to the rules and regulations set by the old boss.

Now the transfer of power from one hand to another is never a smooth affair. While the West looks like it might lose its position as the ruler of the world in the not too distant future, it is clearly having trouble coming to terms with the loss and go gently into the night.

Instead, it is rousing itself to prevent China from replacing it as the hegemon of the South China Sea, and to do so, it is invoking fear of China amongst the SEA nations, in order to persuade the SEA nations to help it prevent China from taking over control of the South China Sea.

According to the Western propaganda, China, through the 9 dash line or 10 dash line plan, is going to gobble up much of the South China Sea for itself, and leave next to nothing for the SEA nations.

This is most likely just the result of Western propaganda, because there is absolutely no reason for anyone to believe that China will behave in this manner, when it has neither behaved in that way in the past nor is behaving in that way in the present.

Thankfully however, the leaders of Malaysia are able to look past the propaganda from the west and see the reality of the situation as it is .

Prime Minister Anwar, for example, has recently pushed back against the West’s attempts to portray China as aggressive and confrontational, by saying that such narratives often emanate from “Western capitalists”.

In a rare show of solidarity, Opposition leader and former foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah, has also lent his support to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s stance against anti-China western propaganda.

“On Western propaganda against China — as stated by the prime minister — I tend to agree with him,” Saifuddin said recently, to second Anwar’s view that the view that China is going to be oppressive and aggressive in the South China Sea is likely due to propaganda from the West that an accurate depiction of China’s actions and intentions.

This idea that China is just going to gobble up the South China Seas for itself while leaving nothing for the SEA nations is obviously foolish.

China is an ancient civilisation with a code of ethics that spans for thousands of years. Whatever it does, it will obviously do it in tune with its code of ethics.

Every nation and civilisation has its code of ethics, and we can all be counted upon to act in tune with our own code of ethics.

From what we know of the relationship between the Sultanate of Malacca, Brunei and Sulu with China in the past, we can see that by the term of China’s code of ethics, SEA nations will not necessarily suffer losses or humiliation when it engages with China according to China’s frame of reference.

On the contrary, based on our past relationship in dealing with China according to its terms, we should not dismiss the possibility that dealing with China on its terms has more to offer us than what the West is currently offering us.

In the near future, there are two things that we likely have to do in order to secure a better relationship with China, which looks likely to become the new boss of the region, if not the world.

The first thing is to understand the code of ethics or the frames of references that China will be using to set the terms of its relationship with the other nations of the world once it becomes the new boss.

China most definitely has a term of sharing the wealth and the control of the South China Sea. It might not be the same terms that are used by the West, but there is no reason for us to believe that China’s term might not be as acceptable, or even more acceptable, to us, than the terms set by the west.

The quicker and better we understand China’s terms of engagement, the better it will be for us.

The second thing we need to do to ensure a healthy and profitable relationship with China, is stop aggravating the dragon with unnecessary and unfriendly gestures, especially at a time when China might be in a sensitive and irritable state, on account of its troubles with the West.

China is obviously not going to flood Malaysian with millions of its citizens like some of us are claiming. An ancient and great civilisation will just not do these sorts of things especially when they are close to returning to the old greatness once again. They will not do it not only because it would be beneath them, but also because it will likely be against their code of ethics.

Making an issue of the citizens of China from waving their flag in our country, when we didn’t make an issue of anyone else waving their flag in our country, simply because we are conflating our local racial issues with matters related to China, is also a counterproductive move on our part, for China might not see our internal racial issues as the cause of the unfriendly gesture, but instead deem us as being anti-China and pro-West on account of the gesture.

A medium-sized nation like ours has a lot to gain by cultivating a good relationship with a great power like China. Conversely, we have a lot to lose if we are careless with our relationship with it.

Our ancestors who founded the Sultanate of Malacca understood that.

It might be time that we take a leaf from our ancestor’s page, and attempt to cultivate our relationship with China more carefully, by engaging them on their terms and cease from aggravating them unnecessarily.

Nehru Sathiamoorthy