The US needs to socialize into East Asia

Zhengxu Wang

With the East Asian Summit completed and the APEC meeting round the corner, it is an appropriate time to look at the role of the US role in the East Asian integration process. The US interest in joining the still-in-the-making East Asian Community is clear. At the very least, the US wants to maintain a strong presence in any regional organization being brought together by the East Asian countries.

Compared to other interested parties such as Russia and Pakistan, that the US becomes a member of the East Asian Community may be more appealing to some. As the world’s only superpower, the US is an important player in every major economic, political and security area in East Asia.

But how a high level of trust can be created to enable all East Asian nations to embrace the US is still a big question.

Many are uncertain about the motivations of the US. Does the US simply want to ensure that its core interests are protected and not neglected in such a process, or does it want to be in to help make a more successful East Asia?

In other words, is the US joining in order to check against an emerging East Asia Community, or is the US joining with an enthusiasm to make Asia better? Many are suspicious that it is the former reason instead of the latter.

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China’s Soft Power Handicaps

Yiyi Lu

Grave product safety problems have repeatedly undermined Beijing’s effort to fashion a positive international image for China and build up its soft power. Many around the world still remember last year’s contaminated milk scandal. Now, reports of children in Shaanxi and Hunan provinces falling ill because of lead poisoning are likely to revive memories of previous international recalls of hazardous Chinese-made toys with high lead content.
 
While instances of shoddy products damaging China’s reputation are already well observed, the recent controversy over mainland China’s aid to Taiwan after Typhoon Morakot has shown another link between product safety and Beijing’s ability to wield soft power.

After the typhoon’s devastating effects became clear, the Mainland moved quickly to offer aid and assistance to Taiwan. Officials in the pro-independence region of southern Taiwan, however, declined the quick-assembly homes donated by the Mainland on the grounds that these homes might contain excessive levels of toxic chemicals. Although subsequent tests showed the goods products donated by the mainland to be safe, the bad reputation of Chinese products had apparently provided anti-China officials in Taiwan a convenient tool to resist Beijing’s charm offensive.

It is widely believed that China’s soft power has grown in tandem with its hard power in recent years. Not everybody welcomes this development. Plenty of people worry that the spread of Chinese soft power poses a threat. Such fears are premature. The Taiwan aid controversy has again demonstrated the vulnerability of China’s soft power.

In the foreseeable future, domestic problems such as poor product safety standards will effectively act as a rein on Beijing’s international soft power ambitions.

Regaining public trust in the legal system

Yiyi Lu

Recently, the executive vice president of China’s Supreme Court, Shen Deyong, remarked that “the distrust of the legal system among some people is gradually spreading and developing into a general social attitude. This is an extremely scary phenomenon.” The spreading distrust of the legal system can be seen in the Hu Bin case.

In May, Hu Bin, a young man from a wealthy family, had hit and killed a pedestrian in Hangzhou while car-racing on a public road. After the case went to court in July, a rumour circulated on the internet that Hu’s family had bribed the law enforcement departments and hired a substitute to stand trial and serve his jail term so that Hu could escape punishment. Many believed the rumour. Although both the court and the procurators’ office in Hangzhou have confirmed the identity of Hu Bin, the rumour has persisted, as many netizens choose not to believe the statements of the Hangzhou judicial authorities.        

Aware of the grim consequences of the crisis of confidence, the judiciary has taken measures to try to regain public trust. On 22 August this year, the People’s Daily carried a report about Henan province’s new judicial transparency programme. The programme started last year with the online posting of verdicts of the provincial high court in Henan on 30 December 2008. By the end of 2009, Henan is expected to make available online all court verdicts in the province.   

Interestingly, the public has discovered many mistakes in the published verdicts. One verdict was found to contain 43 mistakes. Another verdict had declared a person who was alive to be deceased. Many lower courts in Henan have been very reluctant to publish their verdicts. Every intermediate court has made a self-assessment of the percentage of its verdicts which they believed wouldn’t stand public scrutiny. The lowest figure of 5.9% was made from the Xinxiang Intermediate Court, while the highest figure was a shocking 60.3%.  

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