How China Subordinates the World: Tianxia

The modern world loves Chinese diplomacy. I don’t blame them for it either. Nobodies from halfway around the world and every imaginable corner take what little money their state can spare and book an economy flight for their ministers to Beijing. The Chinese response? Lavish, million dollar service, ceremony, and ritual. Who wouldn’t enjoy finally getting their time in the sun from legions of exotic foreigners? Even the Polynesian leaders are hosted like kings of old, and many have less power than the average city councilor. They show up and the soldiers make way for them as the Party lavishes them with services, state business opportunities and opulent personal gifts. And I mean truly opulent gifts. Billion dollar loans, no strings attached? If your poor African leader can visit Beijing and sit down with the Chairman, the Chinese will make it happen.

All this can and should be contrasted with diplomacy in other parts of the world. American diplomacy is particularly spartan by comparison. If you go for a meeting in an American embassy, be yee high ranked official or not, don’t count on being provided with a delicious meal. Bet on having to trudge down towards the dank American cafeteria filled with exclusively noxious and greasy American junk foods. And just to let the point sink in, you’ll probably have to pay for your own meal too. Yes, American diplomacy is a no frills experience. Just goes to show having the most money in the world doesn’t make you generous.

This is a shocking disparity, to be sure. China is the world’s rising star, while America is the pinnacle nation. Why the disconnect in diplomatic behaviors between them, or between either country and the rest of the international community? I’m going to put America aside, as exciting a topic as diplomatic organization and protocol is in the American state. Let’s look at China.

When considering Chinese diplomacy, two things should be considered. Chinese diplomacy is almost exclusively bilateral. Although China participates in a variety of international organizations and treaties, the great bulk of activity in the Chinese diplomatic corps is one on one. And consider the sheer bulk of this activity: Every day new officials from little-known nations show up at China’s doorstep for the publicity and pretend to talk about business they don’t actually have. The second thing to consider is the ceremonial protocols that the Party loves to employ, no matter the occasion and no matter the stature of the visiting statesment.

And this is the way China likes its diplomacy, very Neo-Confucian. Ordered, polite, mutually beneficial overtly. But there is another aspect at play, one that shows a more honest characterization of the Chinese diplomatic objectives. Tianxia, literally meaning ‘under heaven’, was a political and metaphysical concept devoloped by the early Han dynasty, largely considered one of China’s greatest dynasties. The days of the Han were the days of a Golden Age. Order, stability, careful government, and trade with the barbarians reigned supreme. Or at least, that’s the traditional story.

It’s less widely known that the Han spent a great deal of time and energy subjecting neighbors as tributary states and attempting to avoid that same relationship themselves. Take the Xiongnu. For many decades the Xiongnu, as rulers of the steppes and master horse archers, dominated the battles between them and the Han dynasty. The Han leaders faced a difficult choice. Their agricultural nation had neither the flexibility, nor the discipline, nor the ferocity of their northern counterparts. Their people were farmers, and when drafted became soldier-farmers. They were no match for the average Xiongnu warrior, men who spent their whole lives hunting and raiding other equally disciplined steppe peoples.

So the Han turned to diplomacy. To subjugate the Xiongnu and other belligerent barbarian nations, they created an elaborate and ceremonial protocol to appease barbarian leaders and establish the Emperor’s dominance. Traditional the Barbarians would bring in gifts of tribute, signifying their obedience and vassalage to the great Han Emperor who embodied the virtue of heavens, hence Tianxia, better translated as ‘all under heaven’. Of course the Emperor is the son of heaven, so you better pay proper homage. They would then give Han gifts in turn, complex manufactured goods that were beyond the craft of the barbarians so as to make them dependent on their Han masters economically. The Emperors were not always in a position of strength though, and would modify the protocol to reflect this. When inviting a powerful opponent, either one significantly stronger or of similar strength, the Chinese Emperor would forego receiving gifts and instead give them lavishly. Great sums of wealth constituting elaborate bribes would be provided to the barbarian peoples, but the subjection intent was always there. Just as they sought to make smaller powers dependent on their goodwill, so they sought to break the back of Barbarian nations by introducing them to Han luxuries that they themselves could not produce. Within a few generations the power of the barbarians would wane as they, like the old republican Romans of Europe, became lazy, hedonistic, and unproductive. At that point the gifts would be pulled away, leaving the barbarians weak and diminshed, forcing them to re-align their policy with their former Han partners, soon to be overlords.

These ceremonial relationships also served as public relations extravaganzas for the Han. Numerous foreign peoples would come to the Chinese leadership and prostrate themselves, knowingly or not, to Han custom and protocol. The public would be assured that all was well in the empire and that the mandate of heaven was maintained. The modern expression of this is most clear, with two-bit statesment streaming in from abroad and regularly recieving glowing Chinese praise. Many recognize that they are in turn used as public relations tools by the Party to show the new prestige and power of the Party and to demonstrate that China is once more taking it’s rightful place as ‘the middle kingdom’, the one at the center of the world.

Within this context modern Chinese diplomacy becomes much clearer. Elaborate ceremony and opulent gift giving are in fact subtle attempts at subordination, drawn from a millenial long tradition. Whether the visiting statesmen notice this powerplay is immaterial. The modern Party uses this protocol to attain greater domestic standing and prestige, not international renown. This also explains the inordinate importance the Chinese state places on bilateral relationships. This phenomena has been seen again and again, with the Chinese making normally routine multilateral diplmatic ventures difficult and snailpace because of a refusal to engage multiple parties at once. After all, you cannot establish individual dominance over a multilateral conference, even in show.

I have a great interest in China myself and a background in the culture though I am not Chinese myself. I grew up eating Chinese food, watching Chinese shows, reading Chinese literature, and playing Chinese games. And the more I learned, the more I realized that China is a perfect foil to America. America, blunt and honest, rushed and multilateral in preference, contrasted to China, restrained and deceptive, patient and bilateral in preference. The future is always open, but I’m certain that the increasing interaction between the two will produce very entertaining results.