If forced to take sides, most countries would pick the US over China

By Huileng Tan

As the changing nature of the U.S.-China relationship reshapes global political and economic landscapes, many countries are wondering if they'll eventually be forced to take sides.
If it comes to that, many will choose to align themselves with America, according to Fraser Howie, an independent analyst who has written books about China and its financial system.
"They're going to go with the States," he told CNBC on Wednesday.
Although much of Asia has become wealthier on the back of China's economic rise since the start of the communist country's reforms 40 years ago, the East Asian giant has not managed to grow its soft power much, Howie told CNBC's "Street Signs."
"In 30 years of growth, much of Asia (has become) rich on the back of China, (but) they've failed to make friends. I think this is a weakness of Chinese soft power — they've failed to make friends and people are more nervous of China rather than friendly towards it," he said.
China's rise from an impoverished country to the world's second-largest economy in the span of 40 years has emboldened the Asian country to expand its footprint economically, politically and technologically. 

Many see that development as a threat to the U.S. that could bring about a seismic change in the world order Washington helped shape.
"China's goal, simply put, is to replace the U.S. as the world's largest global superpower," FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a press conference in December where the U.S. Justice Department announced hacking charges against two Chinese nationals.
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is currently locked in a bitter dispute with Beijing that has the two sides arguing over not just the tariffs and non-tariff barriers affecting the balance of trade, but also how they fundamentally treat each other's companies.

President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

That means businesses, as well, may have to decide on which side they choose to align themselves, the co-founder of billion-dollar tech company Tradeshift told CNBC last month.
Countries neighboring China — many of which are small — may not want to antagonize Beijing, Howie said, but many people feel they have been "hard done" by China.
"They don't feel that China has played fair in many areas. They feel China is a bully — and certainly it is — and they are using it as an opportunity to try and push back," Howie said.
Even so, many nations around the world that find themselves in a delicate balancing act between U.S. and Chinese interests may be forced to pick a side.
Meanwhile, many allies and partners of the U.S. — and even departing Secretary of Defense James Mattis — have expressed frustration that the Trump administration has not treated international commitments as well as they'd have liked.
"It makes it very difficult for many of the countries, especially in (Southeast Asia), because so many countries in Asia have largely dismissed politics as it was; there's been an economic direction of travel that everyone has been comfortable with for 20, 30 years — and that's now fundamentally changing," said Howie.
One country that has openly expressed concern is Singapore.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told CNBC in October last year that his country's relationship with the world's top two economies also "depends on how the U.S. relationship with China develops."
"If there are tensions between America and China, we will be asked to pick a side. It may not be directly, but you will get the message that: 'We would like you to be with us, and are you with us? If not, does that mean you're against us?' And that's to put it gently," Lee said.
Countries would ideally not have to take sides, but that may not pan out, said Howie: "There should be room for cooperation and there certainly needs to be a change of practices, but the world is going to look very different in a decade."

Rogue Nation

China’s human rights abuses, aggressive military expansion damage its soft power rating

By Liu Zhen

China’s soft power has been weakened by its hard line on foreign policy and human rights, according to an annual survey released on Thursday.
In the “Soft Power 30” report by communications consultancy Portland and the University of South California Centre on Public Diplomacy, China ranked 27th of the 30 countries to make the list, down two places from last year.
The weaker showing was mostly a result of it finishing bottom on the “Government” subindex, which measures nations’ political values, such as their position on human rights, democracy and equality, said Jonathan McClory, the report’s author and Portland’s general manager for Asia.
“China’s record in human rights and civil liberties reflects poorly among Western audiences,” the survey said, adding that “relatively low scores in competitiveness, ease of doing business, and rule of law diminish its attractiveness as a global business hub of choice”.
Also, while China was boosted in 2017 by Xi Jinping’s speech at the Davos forum, in which he sought to position the country as a "responsible" global leader that supported globalisation and free trade, as well as the fight against climate change, that positive narrative “somewhat faded” this year, the report said.
“International attention concentrated on Xi’s decision to eliminate the two-term limit on the presidency,” it said.
Beijing’s “aggressive military expansion” had also undermined its efforts to build trust abroad, by promoting bilateral relations and through its “Belt and Road Initiative”, the survey said.
“Increasing demands for authenticity means that Chinese soft power efforts must be congruent with its political and economic pursuits,” it said.

Meanwhile, with Beijing and Washington embroiled in a major trade dispute, the United States also found itself sliding down the chart, to fourth place in 2018, from third in 2017 and first in 2016.
It also fell four places to 16th on the government subcategory, though still topped three of the six other composite indexes.
Joseph Nye, a Harvard professor and the originator of the term “soft power”, said the US was counting the cost of its leader’s hard-line approach.
“The results of this year’s study show a further erosion of American soft power,” he said. 

“Clearly, the Trump administration’s ‘America first’ approach to foreign policy comes at a cost to US global influence.”
The annual soft power report was launched in 2015 and ranks the top 30 nations on the scores awarded to them in seven categories by 11,000 people from 25 countries.

Chinese Curse

France’s butter crisis shows China is struggling to melt hearts on the world stage
By Luisa Tam

“Don’t take our butter,” a French friend told me jokingly last week at breakfast.
I am visiting Normandy, one of two historically famous butter-producing regions in France; the other is Brittany.
China has been blamed for France’s butter shortage, with the average retail price of the spread going up by at least 35 per cent so far this year – in the country with the highest per capita rate of butter consumption.
I’m feeling the crisis first-hand as my host no longer serves butter lavishly along with bread. 

Now I only get foil-wrapped mini portions.
With insufficient European dairy production, worsened by some unscrupulous producers hoarding supply, as well as growing Chinese demand, the butter shortage in France is not expected to end any time soon.
China seems to get blamed for many things.
Not only is it accused of depleting the global supply of all types of products – including butter – goods and even luxury items, it is also blamed for exporting droves of loud, rude and brash tourists.

China may be a mega economic and political power, but its soft power doesn’t seem to grow in parallel with its increasing hard power. 

Money and political brawn has not helped China buy love on the world stage.
The fundamental issue here is China has a serious image problem overseas that cannot be resolved by exporting a few cute pandas. 

The solution lies in its citizens gripped by wanderlust.
As a regular visitor to the small town of Avranches in Normandy that has a population of around 9,000 – about a quarter of the population in Taikoo Shing, a middle-class residential complex in the eastern part of Hong Kong – I have found myself becoming an unlikely unofficial ambassador of Hong Kong and China, due to my presence as, possibly, the only Chinese visitor here.

As a result, I have become quite self-aware of what I say and do because different cultures have different customs and Chinese parents often try to instill in their children yup heung chui juk which is the Cantonese equivalent to “When in Rome”.
We all know that “manners maketh man”, which means our mannerisms and characteristics make us who we are and people often judge us by our conduct because without these standards, we would lose our civility. 

But we also need to understand that good manners and etiquette take time to develop and require lots of practice and reinforcement.

Self-awareness, like good manners, comes with time. 

One of the main reasons mainland Chinese tourists behave the way they do is because they lack self-awareness. 

They don’t understand how other people perceive their behaviour because they are not used to dealing with people from outside their country for an extended period of time.

Our fellow Hong Kong citizens didn’t turn into well-behaved tourists overnight. 

It has taken them decades.