Anti-terrorism effort makes for strange bedfellows globally
By Thomas Plate
One big plus has surfaced during this terrible terrorism crisis: It's proving to be a fabulous reality check.
Associated Press
In January, the Bush crowd roared into office bad-mouthing the previous administration's coziness with China and talking up Tokyo as if it were Asia's answer to staunch U.S. ally Great Britain.
In Xinjiang province in western China, as many as 7,000 Muslims worship at the 560-year-old Id Kah mosque on Fridays, the main day of prayer. President Jiang Zemin fears that fundamental Islamic extremism from Afghanistan could undermine control of the province.
So what happened in the first major crisis of the new administration — a true life-and-death crisis, unlike the phony, politicized China spy plane "crisis"?
Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi arrived in Washington last week bearing the biggest gift he could manage: a pledge that his nation's military will do what it can, short of actual combat, which is constitutionally prohibited.
Thus, he was forced to lean on traditional Japanese checkbook diplomacy. The Koizumi package emphasizes financial aid, such as for suddenly pro-West Pakistan, while throwing in a dollop of low-profile supply and transport jobs for its aptly named Self-Defense Forces but only so long as they stay far away from the front.
The truth is: Bush could probably have gotten that deal from — oh, let's say — Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
The reality is that Tokyo, though loyally housing U.S. bases and troops, is in no position to assume the role of an Asian London. Yes, Koizumi deserves praise for notching up Japan's contribution. In Japanese terms, in fact, what he offered is a significant departure from Japan's habitual unwillingness to get involved militarily in the remotest way.
The problem is that while the contribution is significant in Japanese terms, it's paltry in global terms. When Australia is suiting up forces, and NATO is treating the attack on the United States as an attack on itself, the provision of limited logistical support and foreign aid hardly puts Japan in the category of a major coalition partner.
But while Koizumi is not ready for a Winston Churchill role in the coming conflict, as some Bush people might hope, Japan's Asian rival, China, comes up short of being an American "strategic partner," a sometime hope of the Clinton people.
Even so, the Chinese may wind up actually doing something for the anti-terrorism effort. Recall that almost three years ago, the anti-
China sector of the Republican Party was blowing the revelations of the Cox Committee Report on Chinese spying out of proportion. Their agents were everywhere, the report breathlessly concluded. But hold that stern condemnation! Now the Bush administration is open to Beijing's offer of intelligence on Muslim extremism. This would come courtesy of the same Ministry of State Security that so traumatized Cox committee members not so long ago. Maybe it's not always such a bad thing that sovereign-state China has its own CIA.
As it turns out, President Jiang Zemin, who describes terrorism as "a grave common scourge," is almost as fixated on Muslim extremism as is George W. Bush. Fundamentalist Islamic terrorism from Afghanistan and adjacent central Asian states could undermine Beijing's control over China's northwestern Xinjiang province. To be sure, no one can imagine Beijing taking an active part in coalition strikes against Afghanistan. But, then again, we know for sure that Tokyo won't.
The reaction of North Korea provides yet another clarifying moment. Soon after its triumphant election, the Bush crowd halted talks with Pyongyang, despite the heartfelt plea of visionary South Korean leader Kim Dae-jung. But even ordinarily callous North Korea, with its sordid track record of supporting terrorist efforts, was taken aback by the heinous operation that managed to liquidate some 6,000 noncombatants at the World Trade Center.
Within hours, the government dashed off a secret cable to Washington via the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, expressing regret and abjuring any responsibility for the attacks. A surprised Bush administration repressed its gut instinct to tell this Stalinist dictatorship where to go and wisely left the door open for renewed talks. The reality is, Kim of South Korea was always right: Better to talk than to isolate even North Korea, frequently trotted out as the ultimate rationale for expensive U.S. missile defense systems.
Another reality check comes from Moscow, which gave the green light to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan — states that border Afghanistan — to serve as launching pads for Western forces. So few Americans have ever even heard of these Central Asian places that they could serve as killer questions on some television quiz show. But before long, these former Soviet provinces are likely to become household names as the extraordinary new realities of the post-Sept.11 world press on us all.
The anti-terrorist effort will make for strange political bedfellows. Get used to it, America. It's become, by necessity, that kind of planet.
Tom Plate, a columnist with The Honolulu Advertiser and the South China Morning Post, is a professor at UCLA. His also has a spot on the Web.
