Sunday, February 13, 2005
Coldly Calculated Competition of Mercy
This is how the Financial Times Deutschland described international aid giving for tsunami relief (see Anand's post below for some current aid levels). Having spoken to several people about the geopolitical consequences of forwarding and accepting disaster aid, it was with great pleasure that I read this essay on the geopolitics of tsunami relief. An excerpt from the essay, of particular importance since the point of India denying aid has been brought up a few times on ZooStation, follows.
India’s policy of preventing any international dimension to the tsunami relief effort at home, as well as its ambivalence towards foreign aid, comes amid several years of relatively high economic growth that prompted New Delhi in 2004 to reduce to six the number of foreign countries permitted to provide aid to India. But many commentators pointed to the real reason behind New Delhi’s new-found policy of self-sufficiency: its desire to project India as an emerging great power in hopes of securing a permanent seat on a reformed UN Security Council.
This is particularly important when one views China's limited role in tsunami-relief.
Indeed, neither China nor Japan –two economic giants that compete for regional influence– were content to be upstaged by the other in responding to the disaster. After much criticism from abroad, embarrassed members of China’s Politburo reluctantly increased an initial pledge of US$2.6 million to US$63 million, the largest lump sum the communist country has ever donated abroad (and carefully calibrated to best the US$50 million pledged by Taiwan, its diminutive rival). But China’s record offering was quickly overshadowed by Japan, which upped its own pledge from US$30 million to US$500 million, half of which will be provided bilaterally. Beijing subsequently raised its pledge to US$83 million, and said it would forgive Sri Lanka’s debt.
China also looked on as American, Australian, British and Indian warships moved quickly into the region to deliver food and supplies to the hardest hit areas. The US undertook its biggest military operation under the Pacific Command since the Vietnam War, and Japan sent the largest-ever contingent of its Self-Defence Forces for an overseas relief mission. By contrast, China still lacks a credible blue water navy. Indeed, Beijing’s primary contribution involved dispatching six medical teams to Indonesia. China then faced criticism that food it donated to Indonesian tsunami victims had passed its expiration date by more than one year.
China was also conspicuously absent from Bush’s ‘core group’, despite Beijing’s rhetoric of playing a leadership role in the region. Adding insult to injury, China’s tsunami pledge ignited debate in Japan over when to stop aid payments to China. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he hoped China would ‘graduate’ from Japanese aid, which still makes up more than half of China’s aid total. Japan has already been reducing aid payments to China –the seventh largest economy in the world– by 20% per year since 2000, while at the same time increasing aid to India, China’s main rival. But China has resisted calls for reappraisal of its status as a major recipient of international aid and interest-free development loans from multilateral lending institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Indeed, China’s relatively limited resources are a reminder that the world’s most populous country is still far from being the dominant power in Asia.
...and contrast this with India's role
India’s reaction to the tsunami contrasted sharply with that of China. Within hours of the disaster, India –China’s near equal in terms of population and economic growth– sent cargo aircraft carrying emergency supplies to neighbouring Sri Lanka, immediately staking a claim for itself in the ‘core group’ of donor nations. Moreover, India refused to accept offers of foreign aid, suggesting that such money should be diverted to poorer nations. Reinforcing the message that it could deal with the disaster on its own, India turned down a request by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to visit the tsunami-affected area of Tamil Nadu.
Whether disaster relief changes geopolitical balance - only time will tell.
India’s policy of preventing any international dimension to the tsunami relief effort at home, as well as its ambivalence towards foreign aid, comes amid several years of relatively high economic growth that prompted New Delhi in 2004 to reduce to six the number of foreign countries permitted to provide aid to India. But many commentators pointed to the real reason behind New Delhi’s new-found policy of self-sufficiency: its desire to project India as an emerging great power in hopes of securing a permanent seat on a reformed UN Security Council.
This is particularly important when one views China's limited role in tsunami-relief.
Indeed, neither China nor Japan –two economic giants that compete for regional influence– were content to be upstaged by the other in responding to the disaster. After much criticism from abroad, embarrassed members of China’s Politburo reluctantly increased an initial pledge of US$2.6 million to US$63 million, the largest lump sum the communist country has ever donated abroad (and carefully calibrated to best the US$50 million pledged by Taiwan, its diminutive rival). But China’s record offering was quickly overshadowed by Japan, which upped its own pledge from US$30 million to US$500 million, half of which will be provided bilaterally. Beijing subsequently raised its pledge to US$83 million, and said it would forgive Sri Lanka’s debt.
China also looked on as American, Australian, British and Indian warships moved quickly into the region to deliver food and supplies to the hardest hit areas. The US undertook its biggest military operation under the Pacific Command since the Vietnam War, and Japan sent the largest-ever contingent of its Self-Defence Forces for an overseas relief mission. By contrast, China still lacks a credible blue water navy. Indeed, Beijing’s primary contribution involved dispatching six medical teams to Indonesia. China then faced criticism that food it donated to Indonesian tsunami victims had passed its expiration date by more than one year.
China was also conspicuously absent from Bush’s ‘core group’, despite Beijing’s rhetoric of playing a leadership role in the region. Adding insult to injury, China’s tsunami pledge ignited debate in Japan over when to stop aid payments to China. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he hoped China would ‘graduate’ from Japanese aid, which still makes up more than half of China’s aid total. Japan has already been reducing aid payments to China –the seventh largest economy in the world– by 20% per year since 2000, while at the same time increasing aid to India, China’s main rival. But China has resisted calls for reappraisal of its status as a major recipient of international aid and interest-free development loans from multilateral lending institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Indeed, China’s relatively limited resources are a reminder that the world’s most populous country is still far from being the dominant power in Asia.
...and contrast this with India's role
India’s reaction to the tsunami contrasted sharply with that of China. Within hours of the disaster, India –China’s near equal in terms of population and economic growth– sent cargo aircraft carrying emergency supplies to neighbouring Sri Lanka, immediately staking a claim for itself in the ‘core group’ of donor nations. Moreover, India refused to accept offers of foreign aid, suggesting that such money should be diverted to poorer nations. Reinforcing the message that it could deal with the disaster on its own, India turned down a request by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to visit the tsunami-affected area of Tamil Nadu.
Whether disaster relief changes geopolitical balance - only time will tell.
