Beijing's lack of missionary zeal - unlike Washington - counts heavily in its favor

As tensions rise between Washington and Beijing over China's islands dispute with Japan, US strategists have been thinking about how to accommodate China while continuing to stand behind their ally Japan.

Perhaps there is need to look at the situation also from an Asian perspective. Historically, in East and Southeast Asia - until the arrival of Westerners - there had been only one major power rising and ebbing: China. When it rises, it is best to accord it some respect in return for considerable economic advantages.

Over the centuries, a rich China invariably brought prosperity to all of East and Southeast Asia. Therefore, while Asian countries may value the US as a friend, none wants China as an enemy. There is a spot that is sweet for everyone. If the US moves closer to China and other Asian countries, all will benefit. If the US, in response to China's rise, moves too close to some in order to move against others, everyone will be caught in a lose-lose situation. Finding the limits of that sweet spot is part of statecraft and diplomacy.

Japan is the first Asian country to meet the Western challenge by becoming an imperial power itself. After its defeat in World War II, it became in effect an adjunct power of the US. Both China and the US may be happy to keep Japan in that "abnormal" position for as long as possible. But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other Japanese leaders want Japan to become a "normal" country. For the US, such a Japan may help counterbalance a rising China. And for China, such a Japan is only acceptable if it acknowledges history.

This "re-Asianization" of Japan is a complex process that will take another generation to achieve. The issue of the Diaoyu Islands (Senkaku Islands in Japanese) is only one manifestation of it. The "re-Asianization" or "normalization" of Japan need not lead to war. Domestic and international pressure on the Japanese elite to recognize history is not only right and doable, it will also relax tensions in the Pacific region and lead to a better future for everyone, including Japan. But it also requires China and the US to play their part. The common objective must be the "normalization" of Japan on all dimensions.

The US is, by self-identification, a missionary superpower. It judges others by its own standards and tries to shape them in its own image - by hard and soft power. If China were also a "missionary power" like the Soviet Union, perhaps another titanic struggle would be inevitable.

However, China is, by self-proclamation, not a missionary power. For China, a cardinal principle of statecraft, not just the PRC but also its earlier incarnations, is non-interference in the internal affairs of others unless those affairs affect China's core interests.

In fact, this principle of non-interference has now become a tool for the West to criticize China - that it is "amoral" in the way it deals with countries in Africa and the Middle East. But it is precisely the fact that China is unlike the US in missionary zeal that there is hope for the future.

The author was foreign minister of Singapore from 2004 to 2011. The views do not necessarily reflect those China Daily.

(China Daily European Weekly 08/29/2014 page13)