Lianhe Zaobao in Singapore published an article by He Maochun, an International Relations Professor at Tsinghua University. He argued that neither of China’s hard power, soft power, or smart power is strong enough to make it a super power. Thus it should adopt a smart foreign diplomacy strategy to unify internal forces, align neighboring forces, and borrow far-away forces to counter Western countries’ pressure and containment.
He outlined six steps: 1. Develop a Greater China economic zone covering China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. 2. Humbly rejuvenate the Great East Asia Chinese culture zone (China, Korea, and Japan). 3. Strengthen the political and economic power of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. 4. Expand cooperation with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) member countries. 5. Steadily move into Africa and Latin America. 6. Using the opportunity of fighting the global financial crisis with Western countries, try to resolve the following issues: stop arms sales to Taiwan; stop supporting the “separatists”; remove the technology and arms embargo for China; stop the “discrimination” against China’s overseas investments and protect the safety of China’s capital.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao, May 28, 2009
http://www.zaobao.com/special/china/sino_us/pages7/sino_us090528a.shtml