[国际新闻] 中国对多国采取笑脸攻势

日月光

  《洛杉矶时报》24日报道，最近五年来，中国为了营造逐渐崛起的国际形象，处心积虑进行“打地基”的工作，这包括高层频频对外进行的国事访问，同时不断透过经济援助、投资及文化输出等多管齐下的手段，一切只为达到它别有居心的目的。( N/ k* L5 C# S/ ^% {! y
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    这篇专文指出，中国的这一“笑脸攻势”，迄今已经小有成就，特别是在一些曾经对它小心翼翼提防的国度。文章进一步分析，中国将它的攻势对准正在发展中的一些国家，这些国家所具有的共同之处是它们在自己境内都拥有可观的天然资源，市场机制也正在成形，急需为成长的经济注入动力。+ Z( p! c- H( H( ]$ J7 L$ m( b
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    例如，在非洲、亚洲及拉丁美洲，中国透过援助和贷款讨好这些致力开发的国家。根据已公布的资料，北京对多个非洲国家提供总额两百亿美元的财务援助，这还不包括它稍早承诺协助安哥拉、赞比亚修筑铁路，为莫桑比克、苏丹兴建水坝等工程。
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    谈到东南亚地区，中国正取代日本成为当地的最大资助者。譬如，北京允诺提供菲律宾至少五亿美元来帮助菲国政府完成一项所谓的高级铁路铺设计划。在其它地区，中国更是以发展双边贸易为手段，持续和波斯湾及南美国家达成另有企图的合作，最明显的莫过于每当中国领导人出访时，总是有一个庞大的代表团随行，所到之处都会跟当地签署工商合作契约或贸易发展协议。
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    另一方面，中国也大量倚赖语言、文化来推动它的笑脸攻势。譬如北京刻意对从肯亚以至澳洲这一辽阔范围内的许多知名学府提供学习中文的奖助金，同时还大幅增加外国学生前往中国进修的名额。一项统计资料指出，二十年前这项奖助金的名额仅有八千个，如今增加到十二万人之多。
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    专文强调，经由北京中央集权式的主导，中国的笑脸攻势或许一时之间可以得逞，但是这些国家中的有识之士也已开始洞悉中国政府别有居心的意图。包括菲律宾的“公平贸易运动”领导人欧佛瑞尼奥近来就以实际行动挑战中国对菲国政坛逐渐增加的影响力。他说：“菲律宾人民拒绝中国式的政治做法，菲律宾不要走回头路。”
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China's charm offensive
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THE NORTH OF THAILAND remained little more than a collection of sleepy villages for decades. Today, the region resembles a burgeoning metropolis — a metropolis in China.csuchen.de% k3 R: s  c4 @. v+ U* F) f+ l

3 J+ x' d" P; v0 g5 Z: X& o% |9 }人在德国 社区With trade booming, it has become a way station for ships delivering Chinese apples, mobile phones and other items. In the Thai city of Chiang Rai, China helped build a fancy cultural center at the local royal university and then used that to cultivate a closer relationship with Thailand's revered monarchy. Thai politicians, too, learn about China on all-expenses-paid junkets. Thousands of Chinese migrants have moved across the border to work. So many Thai businessmen are eager to learn Chinese that the local language schools cannot keep up with demand. % E; \& p' P: ~! l# B' _
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The north of Thailand would look familiar to people in many developing nations around the world. Over the last five years, China has laid the groundwork to become an international power. It has done so not only with high-level diplomacy but also through the tools of soft power: aid, investment, culture and skilled diplomacy. This charm offensive has proved remarkably successful. In countries where China was feared only a few years ago, Beijing's popularity has skyrocketed. csuchen.de0 W8 L6 M- ?* q7 h
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China has turned its energies, in particular, to the developing world, which has the natural resources and emerging markets it needs to fuel its growing economy. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, China woos governments with loans and aid. China recently offered $20 billion in new financing to African nations, and it has already helped support railroads in Angola and Zambia and dams in Mozambique and Sudan. In some Southeast Asian nations, China rivals Japan as the largest donor; in the Philippines, China has committed at least $500 million to a high-profile railroad project.
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China promotes trade aggressively and is inking trade deals with nations from the Persian Gulf to the tip of South America. American businesses simply don't make deals abroad that directly involve U.S. government officials, lest they appear to be taking advantage of political influence. But large delegations from Chinese companies routinely join China's leaders during overseas trips, then sign deals on the spot.
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: |/ ^8 B( m5 W5 N. k6 RChina also is heavily promoting its language and culture. Beijing is funding language programs at leading universities in countries from Kenya to Australia. In Cambodia, China's Ministry of Education went so far as to directly fund or supply teachers for Chinese-language elementary and high schools. And Beijing reportedly is increasing the number of overseas students coming to Chinese universities, from about 8,000 two decades ago to about 120,000 today.
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' d' |7 {) u( [) v5 w, P6 vBeijing's increasingly sophisticated diplomatic corps also effectively pushes its language, culture — and interests. China keeps its diplomats focused. For example, Jiang Yuande, China's ambassador to Brazil, did tours throughout the Portuguese-speaking world before he arrived in Brasilia. "It used to be that the Chinese officials just stayed in the embassy," said one Asian diplomat. "Now they are so skilled on the ground they know more than anyone else. If someone's wife is having an affair, they know it."4 a6 H6 O9 q' s, v2 y6 a
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The public is getting swayed too. Ten years ago, China's rising military and industrial power felt like a threat to the developing world, particularly to its neighbors. Yet today, polls in Africa, Asia and South America reveal much more warmth toward Beijing. That change has allowed, for instance, the Philippines and Vietnam to pursue joint exploration of the South China Sea with Beijing. "We can have much greater cooperation with China because we know there is public support," said one former Philippine official. + R( f9 O' d/ j+ l
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Chinese leaders present themselves as an alternative to the meddling power of the West. China, they argue, will support other countries but will not interfere in their domestic affairs; Beijing will not tell other governments what to do. This fealty to noninterference can sound reassuring in parts of the world where "intervention" seems like code for "regime change."
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The charm offensive has been so successful, in fact, that some countries see China as a model for development. In Africa and Latin America, where liberal economic reforms failed to pull nations out of poverty, there's now a growing opposition to free market reforms and even to democracy. (A poll released last year by the research group Afrobarometer found that, across Africa, support for democracy had declined since 2000.) China, by contrast, has managed to slowly open its economy without freeing its political system. Officials in Vietnam, Syria, Iran and other nations have studied China's economic policies, and on visits to booming Chinese cities, African leaders marvel at China's growth. "You are an example of transformation," Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana told Chinese leaders during a May summit in Shanghai. "We in Africa must learn from your success."
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Unfortunately, many of these nations have not actually followed China's paths to success, such as investing in primary education and infrastructure. Instead, for autocratic leaders, studying the "China model" often means just mimicking China's means of political control but not the real economic reforms. In Zimbabwe, dictator Robert Mugabe has championed relations with China as a means of shunning the West, but he has done little to invest in his own people.
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* x  \' a9 {8 ^  \/ Q" ?; S( K/ H/ cSo in the long run, the China model may backfire. In Myanmar, Zambia and other nations, citizens worried about China's state-dominant model have launched protest movements against China's influence. "We don't want to import China's politics," said Rene Ofreneo, head of a fair trade movement in the Philippines. "We don't want to go backward."