Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,553936,00.html Shanghai dispatch -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- China torn over America's darkest day The public reaction to last week's attacks in America says a lot about anti-American sentiment, but China may yet still support retaliation, writes John Gittings Special report: terrorism in the US Tuesday September 18, 2001 "All of us here think that what happened in New York and Washington is dreadful: it is too sad and too heartless," said a Shanghai student at the weekend, to a chorus of agreement. "But a few other colleagues who are more political think that the US deserved it." These "more political" views, expressed raucously in internet discussion groups during the first days after the disaster, have appalled some foreign observers. The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial that it was clear that "those publicly gloating over America's misfortune represent more than a tiny minority". Critics have cited other evidence of China's allegedly lukewarm attitude: the national TV network was slow in reporting the events; many newspapers only put them on the front page for the first couple of days; there was often more emphasis on the small number of Chinese who died than on the thousands of others, and so on. The Chinese authorities have even been criticised for not censoring the anti-American website postings - a marked contrast with more usual criticism of Beijing for censoring free speech. There is no doubt that media response was hesitant at first and that some website postings and popular comments have been painfully crude. Ordinary Chinese viewers complain that the official coverage has been "weak and bland". The Central TV channels only offered a full report three hours after the first attack although several provincial stations ran live feeds from CNN. Hundreds of one-liners to the effect that "the US is the world's biggest terrorist" have been posted. They were still appearing several days later, despite of reports that website supervisors had been instructed to tone them down. "The US crimes are inexhaustible and deserve the censure of heaven" read one such posting on the 15th. "All around me, everyone is applauding." Yet the websites only give a partial insight to public opinion. They tend to attract more quirky comments with a strong "patriotic" note often rooted in China's past. And the cruder postings were countered by appeals for a more humane approach and warnings that their language was an ugly throwback. "If the death of Liu Shaoqi (the former prominent leader now hailed as a victim of the Cultural Revolution) had been reported at the time," said one critic, "would not everyone have applauded blindly?" "China should be ashamed that there are such ignorant attitudes," said another, comparing anti-US sentiment today to the narrow-minded nationalism of the early 1900s when "people felt brave because they had cursed a foreigner". Other postings sought to distinguish - as commentators have done around the world - between condemnation of terrorism and the need to tackle its real causes. At the official level, there has been no "gloating" of any description. Indeed, Beijing has been more reluctant than many other governments to warn the US publicly against ill-considered action. While the Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, and other leaders sent messages and made telephone calls in support, there was only one official statement in the first few days calling for international "consultation". It took a week before the foreign ministry spokesman, Zhu Bangzao, spelt out today the Chinese position in more detail. China has its own strong interest in countering what it sees as Islamic terrorism in the north-west region of Xinjiang. Relations with the US are also picking up after the low point of the spy plane incident in April and President Bush is due to visit China in October. Beijing may still feel obliged to dissociate itself from US military action when it is taken, but so far the official line as expressed has been - somewhat bizarrely - more supportive of Washington than much of unofficial opinion. However, the decisions ahead will become progressively more difficult. Mr Jiang will have to offset his desire for improved relations with the US against the danger of appearing to support unilateral action. Backing by Nato, seen by China as a figleaf for American intervention in the Kosovo war, will not help. If the issue of retaliation is taken to the UN, as China is now asking, then it will still have to decide which way to vote on an issue where abstention (the course adopted by China in the Gulf war) is hardly possible. China may also have to consider covert US requests for military or intelligence cooperation in a region where Beijing is seeking to establish its own informal sphere of influence. And Mr Jiang cannot ignore the possibility of domestic dissent if initial public sympathy for the victims of New York and Washington is dissipated by military actions that can be portrayed as a new display of "US hegemonism". 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