Is the euphoria over China’s new US ambassador justified amid the dreary diplomatic realities?

There are no poetics in our politics these days as the tenor of US-China diplomacy is prosaic at best and we look for role models of peace in the wrong places
Classical music can offer a welcome alternative to the secular sirens of contemporary politics, even if it is not always appreciated for being above politics

Tom Plate

Published: 3:30am, 7 Sep 2021

Why you can trust SCMP

According to reports, Qin Gang’s public tone seemed fairly chipper on his arrival in Washington. Further, in the wake of his initial meet-and-greet with US officials, there surfaced new communications between the United States and China.

Given the alarm with which many Westerners have reacted to Beijing’s “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy, Qin was presented as if he had come from some Chinese peace and reconciliation commission. This is China’s new ambassador to Washington.

The backdrop is that any sort of apparent uptick in the US-China bilateral relationship is rare enough that some, understandably, try to make a positive out of whatever they reasonably can. It hit a lot of people that the initial utterances out of the official mouth of China’s newly arrived ambassador were not dreadful or ominous.

That is fine, but the hitch is that his predecessor, Cui Tiankai – China’s man in Washington since 2013 – had made many friends for China over the years with his warm style and considerable knowledge of America. Qin, formerly a blunt-speaking foreign ministry official in Beijing, was if anything more wolf warrior than cuddly panda.

Euphoria, in global as well as local politics, is more often than not unwarranted or at best premature. Consider the current dreary reality: the Chinese economy is starting to drag, and the American economy is looking decreasingly exceptional with almost every new statistical report.

02:20

China’s US envoy Qin Gang strikes conciliatory note on arrival in Washington

Malaise, the immensely depressing word once employed by US president Jimmy Carter, looks to be making a revival in America. Also in revival is superpower ineptitude. Washington leaves Afghanistan with all the dignity of a felon on the run, while Beijing is not exactly filling the skies around Taiwan with angelic avatars of peace.

History knows itself and its direction before we mere mortals do. Proceeding apace on its own timetable, it leaves us behind in catch-up mode.

How can we assuage our roiling global soul? What should be happening isn’t: climate change cooperation is the most obvious example, as is stopping nuclear proliferation. If worldwide terrorism is so big a problem, then wouldn’t a joint consultative approach between Beijing and Washington offer more utility than policies of either “lock ’em up” or “drone ’em down”?

There are no poetics in our politics these days. The tenor of US-China diplomacy is prosaic at best. I also worry that we the audience contribute to this by fixating on shaky images. We look for role models of peace in the wrong places.

I was hit with this point by an advertisement in this newspaper for the start of the new season of concerts by the impressive Hong Kong Philharmonic. If the commute from Los Angeles was not so daunting, I would subscribe myself. I am a classical music groupie who believes that we should listen to it more often than to secular sirens of contemporary politics.

Composers who also conduct especially inspire large visions. They include the late Leonard Bernstein and the contemporary Finnish genius Esa Pekka Salonen, now directing the San Francisco Symphony and orchestrating original and edgy concert programming. A good word, too, for Hong Kong born-and-raised Elim Chan, now conducting great orchestras in Europe.

Yes, Hong Kong has talent. Jaap van Zweden, the renowned HK Phil maestro, described his programming this autumn almost in operatic terms. “This season’s theme – ‘Harbour a Love of Music’ – reflects my deep belief that classical music can be a source of peace, healing and unity.”

But powerful classical music is not always appreciated for being above politics, even as in my view it is superior. Famously, Joseph Stalin hated important works by contemporary Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the greatest classical composers.

03:06

Women conductors shine at Paris philharmonic competition, La Maestra

Julian Barnes, the award-winning English novelist, courageously plunged into the deep waters of the artist in constant tension with the state in his carefully conceived novel The Noise of Time. It is one of my favourites, not just because of its deft portrait of the legendary Shostakovich but for its imagining of a feral Stalinist state singing a much different tune.

The moral question raised by Barnes is whether the artist is always justified in pursuing their art no matter the ethical nature of the state – or must the artist always present themselves in open, desk-pounding opposition to government power.

Some think this is a hard question but, in my view, it is not. Art can endure forever, but not unless it is first created, nurtured and, at least to some extent, revered. Imprisoning the artist within the politics of the day is not a proper employment of genius but a threat to inspired creative evolution.

Musical genius will remain embedded in human hearts and memories long after the Pied Pipers of politics are consigned to the bloodless dissections of future historians.

It’s as if we are trudging across a desert of despair and our spirits lift with a vision of an apparent watering hole. Is this a true oasis or just a mirage? That was the question recently bandied about regarding China’s new ambassador to Washington.

If you don’t subscribe to the notion that it’s very important, as I do not, why not subscribe instead to a season with the Hong Kong Philharmonic? Maestro Jaap is back – now there is a true leader for our times.

Tom Plate, Loyola Marymount University’s Distinguished Scholar of Asian and Pacific Studies, is author of the ‘Giants of Asia’ book quartet, which includes “Conversations With Lee Kuan Yew”, and the Pacific Century Institute’s vice-president