The Rising East
Anti-Americanism
brews quietly in Asian
societies allied to U.S.The anti-American outbursts that some Asian and American observers expected during President Bush's trip to Japan, South Korea and China failed to erupt, due in good part to the way the president confronted the issues. It does not mean, however, that the underlying anger has gone away.
At each stop on the six-day journey, the president was resolute without being belligerent. He cut through the middle of the thickets in an address to the Japanese Diet, or parliament, in a joint press conference with President Kim Dae- jung of South Korea, and in a session with students at Tsinghua University, a prestigious Chinese school in Beijing.
Scattered demonstrations in Tokyo and Seoul didn't amount to much -- and that was good because large protests might have generated a backlash in the United States that would have done no one any good. Americans, still rubbed raw by the terrorist assaults of Sept. 11, appear to support Bush's maxim that those who are not with us are against us.
For the long run, however, a virulent anti-Americanism rumbles just below the surface in parts of all three nations. It periodically rises to the surface, weakening the alliances with Japan and South Korea and tempting China to miscalculate in its dealings with the United States.
At rock bottom in Japan and Korea, anti-Americanism is rooted in what the Japanese call amae and the Koreans sadae. In those cultural concepts, Japanese and South Koreans lash out at Americans because they are dependent on the United States for security, which frustrates them because, rationally, they have few realistic alternatives. Yet they expect Americans to tolerate such criticism.
In contrast, Chinese anti-Americanism is nurtured by the government in schools, the press, the People's Liberation Army, business and just about everywhere in Chinese society. "The Chinese government actively poisons the minds of its people by telling lies about the United States," writes Arthur Waldron, a China specialist at the University of Pennsylvania.
Perhaps the most virulent demonstration of anti-Americanism in China recently was the cheering and applause from Chinese when they witnessed video screenings of the hijacked airliners crashing into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11.
In Japan, Yomiuri, the nation's largest circulating newspaper, asserted the other day that "a rampant anti-Americanism is beginning to emerge in the minds of some Japanese." Yomiuri called it "neo-anti-Americanism," a new combination of nationalism, resentment against what Japanese perceive to be an isolationist United States ignoring Japan, and fear of American domination. Japanese are offended by the presence of 44,000 American troops on their soil.
Some South Koreans use almost any issue to lash out at the Americans even though the United States has helped to provide Korean security for more than a half century. As in Japan, the 37,000 U.S. troops posted there are irritating reminders of Korean dependence.
The current South Korean gripe has been Bush's insistence that the North Koreans are "evil." A prominent journalist in Seoul, Choi Won-ki, writes that "Mr. Bush is indeed a simple-minded man" impeding Kim's efforts to open a dialogue with North Korea. That view overlooks North Korea's broken promises on that issue.
After Bush's visit to Seoul, the North Koreans lost no time in directing their usual hostility toward the United States, saying through the government-controlled press that North Korea would not enter negotiations with Washington because "the U.S. is, indeed, a rogue state running amuck." Given the enraged mood in America today, anti-Americanism in Japan and Korea is a luxury in which they cannot afford to indulge themselves without damaging their own vital national interests that are protected by the United States. But many Japanese and Koreans seem not to understand that.
At Tsinghua University, Bush sought to persuade the Chinese in a televised address that their anti-Americanism was misplaced. "Life in America shows that liberty paired with law is not to be feared," the president said. "In a free society, diversity is not disorder. Debate is not strife. And dissent is not revolution."
Whether he got through to them is doubtful and therein lies the danger that the Chinese will one day misjudge the Americans, perhaps the way the Japanese did 60 years ago and Osama bin Laden did 166 days ago.
Richard Halloran is editorial director of the Star-Bulletin.
He can be reached by e-mail at rhalloran@starbulletin.com