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BBC World News – Robert Lawrence Kuhn – September 14, 2017
Host: Why is the mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from
Myanmar continuing. Today on Impact we bring you different
perspectives, and one comes from Myanmar’s state media
which claims the military has China’s backing for what it calls
an “Anti-Terror Operation.” It claims the Chinese ambassador
told hig- level officials that the operation should be treated as
an internal affair. Let’s get insight from Beijing where we’re
joined by Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a long-term advisor to
the Chinese government and the author of How China’s
Leaders Think. Robert, thank you for joining us here on
impact, and what do you think is the Chinese interest here?
RLK: China’s foreign policy is clear historically, but it has
been changing under President Xi Jinping. President Xi has a
grand vision to create an international community of common
destiny, as he calls it, via a new kind of global governance. So,
in this situation, what is China’s position? Historically, of
course, China’s cardinal principle has been non-interference
across international boundaries. But there’s much more here
to the story. First of all, China will always skew to supporting
the existing government - especially in cases of minority
issues because China of course has its own minorities and
would not want some new general principle of “responsibility
to protect” to be used in an exaggerated way, because it could
be applied to China’s situation in Xinjiang or elsewhere.
RLK: But there’s more complexity with Myanmar because
Myanmar an ASEAN country and China has great political
interest in ASEAN, particularly in the South China Sea where
Vietnam, potentially Indonesia, Philippines (for a time), were
all claimants against China, and China needs support in that

area. In addition, Myanmar is in a critical geographic position
for China’s economic concerns. President Xi has the Belt and
Road Initiative, this far reaching strategy to build
infrastructure across Asia and into Africa and even Eastern
Europe. And Myanmar plays a critical position potentially for
an oil or energy pipeline that would allow China to get
resources from the Middle East and avoid the bottleneck in
the Straits of Malacca. For all of these reasons, China would
support the Myanmar government.
Host: Robert, is China’s support strengthened by opposition
from Washington where President Trump’s administration is
calling for Rohingya refugees to return to safe zones?
RLK: I don’t think that’s a big motivation for China. Far more
important are local geopolitics, the Belt and Road Initiative,
the potential energy pipeline. I don’t think China considers
opposing Washington a major motivator for their strategy.
U.S. comments seem normal for these situations, but are fairly
ineffectual – look at Crimea or other places in the world
where similar situations have occurred.
RLK: Refugee crises are great tragedies for the world and it
seems like we have more of them. There’s more of a desire for
individual groups of people to assert their own independence.
We see it in the Kurds, South Sudan, many places in the world.
Perhaps it’s our interconnected world of 24-hour-a-day
internet, which allows similar people to congregate together
and take up their own personal interests. So it’s a very
complex situation. China is dealing with it - for the reasons I
said - for what it believes to be in its own interests.
Host: Robert Lawrence Kuhn, thank you very much for
joining us from Beijing. We appreciate your insights.