中國駁斥了對其高級外交官言論似在推動種族聯盟的批評

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

China dismisses criticism of top diplomat's comments appearing to push for race-based alliance

Wed, July 5, 2023 at 1:59 a.m. PDT

BEIJING (AP) — China on Wednesday dismissed criticism of racially tinged comments by its top diplomat, who said Westerners are incapable of distinguishing among Chinese, Koreans and Japanese.

“Americans take all visitors from China, South Korea and Japan as Asians. They cannot tell the differences and it’s the same in Europe,” said Wang Yi, a former foreign minister who now heads the ruling Communist Party’s foreign affairs commission. “No matter how yellow you dye your hair, or how sharp you make your nose, you’ll never turn into a European or American, you’ll never turn into a Westerner."

“One needs to know where one’s roots are," Wang said at a trilateral forum in the northern Chinese city of Qingdao on Monday. "China, Japan, Korea — if we can join hands and cooperate, it would not only suit the interests of our three countries, but also the wishes of our peoples and together we can prosper, revitalize East Asia and enrich the world."

Wang’s comments drew immediate condemnation, particularly from scholars online. Asked about the critical response at a briefing Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin replied, “we cannot agree with it at all.”

In a speech to the forum, Wang Yi emphasized cooperation among the three nations, adding that “some major countries outside the region deliberately exaggerate ideological differences, weave various exclusive small circles, and try to replace cooperation with confrontation and unity with division.”

That was a clear reference to the United States, China's chief rival, which it routinely accuses of hegemonism.

The U.S. has security alliances with both Japan and South Korea, whose open societies and multiparty democracies contrast sharply with China's strict authoritarian one-party system. China's closest allies in northeast Asian are North Korea and Russia.

“Only a region that is united and self-reliant can eliminate external interference and achieve sustainable development,” added Wang, who then promoted a series of Chinese initiatives, including Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's signature “Belt and Road” cross-border infrastructure project.

China has for centuries viewed itself as the economic, political and cultural center of East Asia, a role it is seeking to regain under Xi's aggressive foreign policy and campaign for the "Great Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation."

On Twitter, Bonnie Glaser, Asia Director of the George Marshall Fund of the United States, wrote: “This message will not land well with Japan and South Korea. Does Wang Yi really think that national interests are less important than appearance?”

“The irony of ... Wang Yi telling Japanese and Koreans ‘you can never become an American,’ is that Japanese and Koreans become Americans every day,” wrote Jeff M. Smith, director of the Asian Studies Center at U.S. think tank The Heritage Foundation.

“They’re part of the fabric of America. What they can’t become is Chinese. Tone deaf. Again,” Smith wrote.

There are millions of U.S. citizens of Chinese, Japanese and Korean heritage.

Some commentators also noted that Wang's comments were reminiscent of Japan's 20th century “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,” essentially a front for its bid to conquer much of the continent and supplant Western influence.

In his speech and in later comments, Wang papered over historical and current differences among the three countries. China fought against South Korea on behalf of North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, and still bears strong resentment toward Japan over its brutal World War II invasion and occupation of much of China.

Translation

北京（美聯社）- 中國周三駁回了對其最高外交官的言論帶有種族色彩的批評，他稱西方人無法區分中國人、韓國人和日本人。

前外交部長、現執政的共產黨外事委員會主任王毅說: “美國人把所有來自中國、韓國和日本的遊客都視為亞洲人。 他們無法分辨出其中的差異，在歐洲也是如此” 。 “無論你把頭髮染得多黃，無論你把鼻子弄得多尖，你永遠不會變成歐洲人或美國人，你永遠不會變成西方人。”

周一王在中國北部城市青島舉行的三方論壇上表示: “一個人需要知道自己的根在哪裡” 。 “中國、日本、韓國 - 如果我們能夠攜手合作，這不僅符合我們三個國家的利益，也是我們各國人民的願望，我們共同繁榮、振興東亞、豐富世界。”

王的言論立即遭到譴責，尤其是來自網上學者的譴責。 在周三的新聞發布會上被問及對此的批評時，外交部發言人汪文斌回答說： “我們完全不能同意譴責。”

王毅在論壇演講中強調了三個國家之間的合作，並補充道， “一些域外大國刻意誇大意識形態差異，編織各種排他性小圈子，試圖以對抗代替合作，以分裂代替團結” 。

這明顯是指中國的主要競爭對手美國，中國經常指責美國實行霸權主義。

美國與日本和韓國都有安全聯盟，這兩個國家的開放社會和多黨民主制度與中國嚴格的威權一黨制形成鮮明對比。 中國在東北亞最親密的盟友是朝鮮和俄羅斯。

王補充道： “只有團結、自力更生的地區才能消除外部干擾，實現可持續發展” 。他隨後推動了一系列中國倡議，包括共產黨領導人習近平標誌性的 “一帶一路” 跨境基礎設施項目 。

多個世紀以來，中國一直將自己視為東亞的經濟、政治和文化中心，在習近平激進的外交政策和 “中華民族偉大復興” 運動的推動下，中國正在尋求重新獲得這一地位。

美國喬治·馬歇爾基金會亞洲區主任 Bonnie Glaser 在推特上寫道： “這一信息不會受到日本和韓國的歡迎。 王毅真的認為國家利益不如外表重要嗎？”

美國智庫亞洲研究中心-遺產基金會-的主任 Jeff M. Smith 寫道： “王毅告訴日本人和韓國人‘你永遠不可能成為美國人’，諷刺的是，日本人和韓國人每天都在成為美國人”。

Smith寫道: “他們是美國結構的一部分。 他們不會成為的就是中國人。再一次, 中國不理解人們對這事的感受” 。

有數百萬美國公民擁有中國、日本和韓國血統。

一些評論人士還指出，王毅的言論讓人想起20世紀日本的 “大東亞共榮圈” ， 本質上是日本試圖征服東亞大陸大部分地區並取代西方影響力的幌子。

王毅在講話和隨後的評論中掩蓋了這三個國家之間歷史和當前的分歧。 中國在 1950-53 年朝鮮戰爭期間代表朝鮮與韓國作戰，並且仍然對日本在二戰期間殘酷入侵和占領中國大部分地區懷有強烈不滿。

So, regarding Wang’s saying that if China, Japan, Korea can join hands and cooperate, “it would not only suit the interests of our three countries, but also the wishes of our peoples and together we can prosper, revitalize East Asia and enrich the world”, I  agree with some commentators that Wang's words sound like Imperial Japan's early 20th century “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere” proposal which basically was a pretext for its bid to dominate much of the Asian continent and to replace Western influence. Against the background of how currently China is dealing with the Philippines and Vietnam over the South China sea issues, his words “revitalize East Asia” seems to have a shadow of China’s dream in dominating Asia again like during the Tang dynasty (AD 618 - 907), the Ming dynasty (AD 1368-1644) or the Ching dynasty (AD 1644-1911), when China was historically known as the influential Middle Kingdom.