HARMONY DIPLOMACY: BE MORE A RESPONSIBLE WORLD POWER, NEITHER AN ENEMY, NOR A PARTNER, NOR A JUDGE

HARMONY DIPLOMACY: BE MORE A RESPONSIBLE WORLD POWER, NEITHER AN ENEMY, NOR A PARTNER, NOR A JUDGE
BY FRANCIS C W FUNG, PH.D.
San Francisco, November 19, 2009

francis@worldharmonyorg.net
INTRODUCTION
This essay is a humble response to PBS’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer broadcast (November 16, 2009) following President Obama’s town hall meeting in Shanghai. In answering Lehrer’s question “Will China be a partner or an enemy to America?”, James Fallows, the seasoned journalist, replied “Probably neither.” All indications point to China becoming “both an important partner … and a contender in various ways.” Fallows is the distinguished editor in chief of the Atlantic Monthly and a personal friend. With due respect and not to steal his thunder, I wish to expound further.

Jim Lehrer’s repeated question to his media panel was “Will China become a partner or an enemy to America?” This question is riddled with a Cold War overtone and is not at all appropriate and beneficial to Obama’s practice of harmony intentions. China consistently insists on the principle of non-interference in other countries’ domestic affairs. She has practiced her professed independent foreign policy since her founding and has no intention to become America’s enemy. In support of building a better consensus for coming cooperation between the greatest developed world power and the developing world power, I suggest the timely practice reflected by the title “Harmony Diplomacy: be more a responsible world power, neither an enemy, nor a partner, nor a judge”