THE REAL CHINA STORY

Victor Bloom MD

Some of the emerging facts of the recent China showdown have supported my hypothesis about the human, as opposed to the 'realpolitik' aspects of the 12 day ordeal surrounding the collision of an American spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter over the South China Sea. Despite the military and espionage aspects of the surface story, there was a touching narrative emerging below.

I thought that the Chinese pilot was a "Top Gun" wannabee. In the exciting Hollywood movie, Tom Cruise played the role of a talented, but daredevil jet fighter pilot, one whose escapades brought danger to others. Sure enough, recent filmclips from the spy plane were released on the New York Times Internet edition that showed a Chinese jet dangerously close to the lumbering, technologically-loaded, propellor-driven spy craft. Videotapes showed the wavering fighter, struggling to stay aloft at such a slow speed. Its instability was alarming to the American airmen, who clearly expressed concern about possible collision.

Information recently released gave word that the harrassment came from one particular southern base and was not generally a problem. Further talks will attempt to assert our right to do routine surveillance over international waters and also to work on an agreement for a safer distance to be kept to avoid further collisions. I am sure that we do not want to be harrassed and they do not want to lose any more planes or pilots.

Other photographs showed that this particular pilot's closeness was more friendly and curious than not. The pilot's holding up a sign with his email address could not be interpreted as belligerent, although his orders from higher up, might well have been to simply harrass our spy plane.

It is no secret that many of the Chinese youth are interested in and curious about the United States. They have seen some of our movies, heard some of our music and sampled some of our wares. And it is now China policy to encourage entrepreneurship and getting rich, a flexible stance which is getting ideologically closer to capitalism. In fact, China's industrial and technological growth in the last decade has been nothing short of phenomenal, as the old guard is loosening its controlling grip over capitalistic enterprises, foreign trade and communication.

As a matter of fact, the government is letting increasing numbers of young Chinese out of China to obtain a higher education elsewhere, and they have been flocking to the best American universities. The authorities no longer insist that the students return for service to the government. As a result, thousands of Chinese students are attending our universities, doing fabulously well, and planning to stay. Perhaps the old guard is glad to be getting rid of potential trouble-makers after the Tiananmen Square massacre, which is still a sore spot in China's recent memory.

Thousands of Chinese students and their friends and relatives in the states have been emailing each other, and the news is getting abroad that the US is a pretty cool place. Our spyplanes are so technologically sophisticated that they are picking up these email messages and getting the information that many young Chinese, eager for a higher education, opportunity and especially academic and economic freedom, are longing to come to America, to get to know Americans. This fact is an embarrassment to the present rulers of China, who would like to perpetuate the fantasy that communism is more successful and more desirable than capitalism. So perhaps the distraction of Taiwan and the confrontation with the great 'bully' power is an attempt to foment a spirit of nationalism and belligerence toward the United States.

This is certainly what they did in the China press, suggesting to the Chinese people that the People's Republic of China stood its ground with the great super-power and intimidated us into an abject apology over the collision, as if we admitted the collision was our fault. The clever diplomatic language used every shade and nuance to convert our being "very sorry" that the collision happened and that the pilot was killed, into an admission that we were very sorry because we were wrong in having spy planes so close to their borders, and that our plane, in making a sudden turn, caused the collision. In fact we did apologize for landing without permission. Any thinking person on the east or west side of the Pacific would see through that word game. It's like "Simon says," the child's game--- go back three steps because you didn't say, "may I!"

The very latest news, as of April 16, is that further debriefing of our air crew indicates that after an initial and short period of shouts and threats with drawn guns, the soldiers at Hainan Island boarded the downed craft and started to get friendly and informal with our men and women, asking if they had ever been to Hollywood or Disneyland, wanting to trade hats, and especially wanting to trade paper money. They knew the value of an American dollar as 'hard currency' and what it could buy in China, and a few of their soldiers were thrilled with getting an American dollar bill. Apparently while the American airmen and Chinese soldiers were getting to know each other and sharing comraderie, the generals and statemen did what they could to keep things appearing more confrontational and serious for the benefit of their propaganda objectives.

What actually happened signals some hope that as human beings, we have more reason to be cooperative and friendly than confrontational and belligerent. The main theme of the major religions of east and west, Buddhism and Judeo-Christianity is the call for peace and brotherhood. With the spectre of the bomb always in the shadows, behind the scenes and out of consciousness, one continues to hope that despite the deplorable record of human history, in this new millenium, reason and good will will prevail.

Dr Bloom is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University School of Medicine. He is a member of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and on the editorial board of the Wayne County Medical Society. He welcomes comments at his email address--- vbloom@comcast.net.