The most critical news even hotter than those related to the Russia-Ukraine war and the G20 convention and its bilateral summits, is no other than the Arab Summit and President Xi’s speech at the Arab Summit and his state visit to Saudi Arabia. The significance of the Arab Summit can be examined through history in terms of ‘Separatism’ and ‘Unification’ prevailed in political policies and diplomatic tactics. The Arab world is bestowed with rich energy resources, but it has been a victim of separatism policy, an off-shoot of colonialism after the two world wars when revolutions furiously took place in the continents ruled by colonialism. Today, the Arab world is war-torn and separated into many political entities due to external interference, namely the Soviet Union and the U.S. Unification is a much older concept well documented in Chinese history. Dynasties after dynasties, unification was desired as a political concept to encourage harmonious living together as citizens of a nation even though ruled by an authoritarian emperor. When China struggled against colonialism and became a republic during the two world wars, it has been pursuing unification, nevertheless. China was separated into two parts across the Taiwan Strait out of external influence, namely the Soviet Union and United States battling an ideologically driven Cold War. Unification being written into the constitution of both the PRC and ROC, of course, has its historical reason. In this article, the author would like to discuss the importance, but not so obvious, of the Arab Summit to the world.
The U.S. emerged as the world's strongest super power after benefited from WW I and WW II. It is no fault to desire and to behave as a world leader to guide the world to prosperity. However, perhaps influenced by colonialism and the success of Menlo doctrine, the U.S. adopted ‘Separatism’ as the principal policy to control, rather than to lead, the world. Separatism as a strategy for controlling the world has two axioms. One is to suppress the rise of any strong united country to be a rival of the U.S. The Soviet Union (now Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union) and rising China in this century were clearly two pieces of evidence exhibited in the strategy of the U.S. national security strategy. Two is to divide and maintain a separated world for ease of control. This can be seen clearly in the Middle East and Africa. Europe may have realized the value of unification but the U.S. had never wanted a strong United Europe. So to its advantage it had organized a military alliance, NATO, under its control. NATO unified part of Europe’s military forces under the U.S. command, since, except for France, most other NATO countries are equipped or rely upon U.S. military equipment or aid. In Asia, the U.S. had Japan under control (Japan had been suppressed once in the ‘80s when Japan’s economy rose to the world's number two position). The U.S. insisted the separation of the two Koreas is clearly another piece of evidence. So, targeting China today as an enemy by playing the Taiwan card against China’s unification policy is no surprise, a logical consequence of the U.S. separatism strategy.
We are familiar with the ‘Arab Spring’ movement. It is essentially a separatism tactic using violent riots as a revolution to topple those stable but not under U.S.-controlled governments. In Chinese language, it has been translated as 阿拉伯之春, but Spring in English can mean the first season of the year when plants sprout but it can also mean bounce with little control. The Arab Springs are actually riots orchestrated by external forces using whatever issues (religion, race, social and economic problems) to bounce or topple stable governments, be they authoritarian or democratic governments. The Arab nations have suffered severely from Arab Springs. Today, an organized Arab Summit without the hands of the U.S. is very significant in that the Arab nations have finally recognized the evil of separatism. Furthermore, the U.S. has turned from a big buyer of Arab oil to a competitor, a seller of its shale oil. The Arab nations need more than ever to unite together. Welcoming China’s President, Xi Jinping to attend the Arab Summit also signifies that. Although differences exist in the Arab world, it is still advantageous to embrace unification than separatism. The outcome of the Arab Summit will very likely turn a new chapter for world politics and foreign diplomacy.
Both ROC and PRC have recognized the importance of the Arab world not just from the oil they need but also from geopolitical considerations. ROC maintained a good relationship with Saudi Arabia. Many young professional citizens from Taiwan, for example, nurses and engineers, had been assigned to work in Saudi Arabia helping its hospitals and engineering projects. Later the PRC under the one-China principle replaced the ROC in the United Nations, the PRC had essentially offered similar professional services to Arab nations. Many Arab nations adhered to the One China principle, and Saudi Arabia eventually abandoned ROC and recognized PRC as the other over 190 UN members did. Instead of judging this diplomatic flip as a morale defection, it is more a diplomatic reality. However, among these diplomatic flips, there is an unexplained hidden reason that the Arab nations especially realized the pitfalls of separatism and how much damage it had made in the Arab world. Perhaps the Arabs had appreciated the insistence on unification of the Chinese political philosophy. Both PRC and ROC had viewed the Taiwan Strait Separation as a domestic issue. It was the U.S. that has been the promoter of maintaining a de facto separation. Hence, Arab nations would decisively make a clean flip rather than keeping steps with the ambiguous Taiwan policy the U.S. was practicing.
President Xi’s state visit to Saudi Arabia and the Arab Summit will certainly strengthen the trade relations between the two countries, the use of RMB as currency for oil purchases, accelerated infrastructure projects and military equipment procurement, and increased cultural exchanges. But more significantly, Xi’s trip may shine a spotlight on unification versus separatism for the Arabs, the people in Taiwan and Mainland, the Americans, and the whole world to see: unification leads to a harmonic world and separatism causes human misery!
中國與阿拉伯國家高峰會對世界的意義 (中譯)
比俄烏開戰和G20峰會及其雙邊元首峰會更火爆的關鍵消息,莫過於阿拉伯峰會和習主席出席中阿峰會,並對沙烏地阿拉伯進行國事訪問。 中阿首腦峰會的意義,可以從歷史上的「分裂」與「統一」, 兩種國際盛行的政治政策和外交策略來考察,阿拉伯世界擁有豐富的能源資源,但它一直是分裂主義政策的受害者,這是兩次世界大戰後殖民主義的脱變,在殖民主義統治的大陸上發生了激烈的革命。 今天,阿拉伯世界飽受戰爭蹂躪,是由於外部干涉,主要是蘇聯和美國, 加劇分裂,阿拉伯世界被分裂成許多政治實體。統一是一個更古老的概念,在中國歷史上有很好的記載,中國歷代王朝在專制皇帝的統治下都希望統一,作為一個政治概念來鼓勵一個國家的公民能和諧地生活在一起。 中國在兩次世界大戰期間反對殖民主義、致力於建立共和國的時候,也一直在追求統一反抗分裂。 由於受到外部影響,即蘇聯和美國在意識形態驅動的冷戰中互鬥,中國在台灣海峽兩岸被分成兩部分(中國受害於分裂主義還有蒙古被分割)然而「統一」被寫入中華人民共和國和中華民國的憲法,當然有其歷史原因。 在本篇文章中,作者想討論(不那麽明顯的)中阿元首峰會對世界的意義和重要性。
美國受益於一戰和二戰,一躍成為世界上最強大的超級大國。 渴望以世界領導者的身份來引導全球走向繁榮並沒有錯。 然而,也許是受到殖民主義利益和門羅主義成功的影響,美國採取了“分裂主義”作為主要外交政策,以控制世界而不是領導世界。 分離主義作為控制世界的策略有兩個目標。 一是壓制任何強大的統一國家崛起成為美國的對手。蘇聯(蘇聯解體後為現在的俄羅斯)和本世紀崛起的中國成為美國國家戰略和 安全策略中的對手就是明證。 二是分裂和維持一個分裂的世界,便於控制。 這在中東和非洲可以清楚地看到。 歐洲已經意識到統一的價值,但美國從來不想造成一個強大和統一的歐洲。 因此,它組織了一個在其控制下的軍事聯盟-北約,這對它有利。 北約將歐洲部分軍事力量統一在美國的指揮之下,因為除法國外,其他北約國家大多依賴美國的軍事裝備或援助。 在亞洲,美國控制了日本(日本在80年代經濟上升到世界第二的時候被打壓過一次)。 美國堅持朝韓分裂很顯然的是另一個證據。 因此,今天通過打台灣牌反對中國統一將中國視為敵人也就不足為奇了,這是美國分裂主義戰略的合乎邏輯的結果。
我們熟悉「阿拉伯之春」運動。 這本質上是一種分裂主義策略中的技倆,利用暴力騷亂作為革命來推翻穩定但不受美國控制的政府。 在中文中,它被翻譯為阿拉伯之春,但英文中的春天可以表示一年中植物發芽的第一個季節,也可以表示不受控制地反彈。 阿拉伯之春實際上是由外部勢力策劃的騷亂,利用任何問題(宗教、種族、社會和經濟問題)來反彈或推翻穩定的政府,無論是威權政府還是民主政府,只要是不順從的政府。 阿拉伯國家深受阿拉伯之春之害。 今天,一次沒有美國在內的有組織的阿拉伯首腦會議,意義重大,阿拉伯國家終於認清了分裂主義的罪惡。 此外,美國已經從阿拉伯石油的大買家變成了其頁岩油的競爭對手、變成賣家。 阿拉伯國家比以往任何時候都更需要團結起來。 邀請中國國家主席習近平在阿拉伯首腦會議上出席,也表明阿拉伯世界儘管存在分歧,但認清了統一主義總比分裂主義有利。 中阿峰會的成功很可能會掀開世界政治和國際外交的新篇章。
中華人民共和國和中華民國都認識到阿拉伯世界的重要性,不僅從他們需要的石油觀點,而且從地緣政治和歷史淵源考慮。 台灣與沙特阿拉伯曾經保持著良好的關係。 許多台灣的年輕職業公民,例如護士和工程師,被派往沙特阿拉伯工作,幫助其醫院和工程項目。 後來中華人民共和國在一個中國原則下在聯合國取代了中華民國,中華人民共和國基本上也向阿拉伯國家提供類似的專業服務。 許多阿拉伯國家都堅持一個中國原則。 沙特阿拉伯最終放棄了中華民國,並像其他 190 多個聯合國會員國一樣承認了中華人民共和國。 與其將這種外交轉變判斷為「不講義氣」,不如說它是一種外交現實。 然而,在這些外交轉折中,有一個難以解釋的隱情,那就是阿拉伯國家特別意識到分裂主義的陷阱及其對阿拉伯世界造成的破壞。 也許阿拉伯人讚賞中國政治哲學裡堅持統一的信念。 中華人民共和國和中華民國都將台海分離視為國內問題。 是美國一直在推動和保持台海事實上的分裂。 因此,阿拉伯國家寧願果斷放棄模棱兩可的糢糊對台政策。
習主席對沙特阿拉伯的國事訪問和參加中阿峰會必將加强两國貿易關係,以人民幣作為貨幣購買石油,加快基礎建設項目, 軍事裝備採購,增加文化交流等項目,但是從歷史的長程和全球的視野看來,其實更重要的是,習近平主席此行可能像聚光燈一樣會讓阿拉伯人、兩岸人民、美國人和全世界看清統一與分裂的區別:統一能導致世界和諧,分裂則為人類帶來苦難!
Ifay Chang. Ph.D., Inventor, Author, TV Game Show Host and Columnist (www.us-chinaforum.org) as well as serving as Trustee, Somers Central School District.