The Rise of China's Neocons.(World View)(Viewpoint essay)

So much focus is given to the olympics and China's economy these days that it's easy to overlook the deeper shifts occurring in Beijing's foreign policy. But concealed behind the anodyne comments of China's leaders, who generally try to underplay their country's power, a fierce debate over China's international approach is underway. The argument, waged in government-run think tanks and universities, pits liberal internationalists against China's neocons--who aim for nothing short of remaking the entire international order in China's image.

For now the liberal internationalists have the upper hand. They include thinkers like Zheng Bijian, a former deputy to President Hu Jintao at the Communist Party's Central School and the man who coined the term "China's peaceful rise." They maintain that China should respect the traditional rules of the international system, avoid conflict and sell others on the idea that China is not a threat. Zheng has argued that China needs to exploit Washington's unpopularity by projecting its own "soft power," or cultural and political appeal. He wants Beijing to answer the "American Dream" of individual success by promoting a "Chinese Dream" based on economic development (to help the poor) and respect for sovereignty and international law (to defend national independence). Although the term has been discarded, China's peaceful rise now defines the foreign policy of President Hu, who is crisscrossing the world offering Chinese friendship and aid to all takers, and easing tensions with the West by softening Beijing's stand on touchy international issues like Darfur, Iran and North Korea.

By contrast, the neocons--or "neocomms," as they should be known, since they represent a new twist on the Mao-era policy of challenging Western hegemony--are men like Yan Xuetong, an academic with close links to the Ministry of State Security, and Rear Adm. Yang Yi, one of the brightest thinkers in the Chinese military. The neocomms argue that China should be less focused on appeasing Washington and more concerned with Beijing's own priorities. These include resisting democracy promotion and humanitarian intervention abroad, in order to protect China and its allies from external interference.

The neocomms have taken up the idea of multilateralism-- associated in the West with the dilution of national sovereignty by member states agreeing to be bound by the rules of supranational institutions (like the European Union or the World Trade Organization). Thinkers like Yan have transformed the concept into a tool of ...