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American Morning

Expert: Chinese Must Save Face

Aired April 09, 2001 - 09:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Diplomats are still searching for a solution to the standoff between the U.S. and China. And for some insight on how China is reacting to the stalemate, we're joined by Fei-ling Wang. He is an associate professor of international affairs at Georgia Tech here in Atlanta.

Dr. Wang, good to have you with us once again.

DR. FEI-LING WANG, GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: Thank you.

KAGAN: You provided us great insight last week when you were telling us about what you are seeing in the chat rooms of some of the Chinese. What are you seeing now?

WANG: Actually, the mood over there has remained to be roughly the same, in other words, demanding apology and pinning the blame on the United States -- and asking the Chinese government to be tough and strong, and to be patriotic, to be nationalistic. I think the mood is roughly the same.

I don't know whether the release of President Bush's letter to the wife the missing Chinese pilot will change that or not. I don't know. But so far...

KAGAN: So far it's pretty consistent?

WANG: It's pretty consistent.

KAGAN: Let's go to this issue of apology. Now, you're someone -- you grew up there. You've been here for about 15 years. I think you understand both cultures very well. Do -- does each culture have a different feeling on the word "apology?"

WANG: Definitely. And I think we are a nation of the rule of law, which is wonderful...

KAGAN: "We" being which "we"?

WANG: The United States.

(LAUGHTER)

KAGAN: OK. WANG: That's really wonderful. But also we have grown up to get accustomed to the idea of legalistic culture. When we make apology, we often think of the legal consequences, possibly lawsuits and stuff like that.

KAGAN: I can't say that because that means I'm going to be responsible for certain thing

(CROSSTALK)

KAGAN: Exactly. The first advice you get from a lawyer after accidents is: "Don't say you're sorry, don't say your apol -- don't make apologies without sort of a court judgment." And that probably affected the American attitude towards making apology. But in each nation's culture, it's different.

For example, not long ago, the Japanese fishing boat was sunk by American sub. The Japanese demanded Americans make apologies. The United States government made an apology, I mean, correctly, but the sub's captain refused to make apology for a long time. And that become a huge issue in Japanese newspapers, simply because lawyer of the captain advised him not to make apology for fear of legal consequences.

And I guess here, the reason -- one of the reasons behind the administration's refusal to make apology, perhaps, is the worry that the Chinese may use this to prosecute our servicemen and women -- or the Chinese may use this to say, "Okay, you did this thing wrong and stop in the future." That's going to impair our military operations in the Pacific. I think that's the concern here.

KAGAN: But within the Chinese culture, there's a feeling that we're talking about respect here.

WANG: Right. The Chinese culture, as well as many East Asian cultures, emphasize on the value of respect, face, image. We can call them moralistic, not in the sense they are more moral than we are. It's in the sense: They emphasize on face issue. Let's save each other's face. Give each other right steps to step down. And then we talk about legal responsibility: what's wrong, what's right and the compensation.

It's not a country -- China's not a country of rule of law. It's barely a country of rule by law. So, therefore, law is not that kind of a sacred institution in China as it is here. So legal consequence is not always the very important issue over there.

KAGAN: So if you would say the American culture is one of rule by law, what would you then substitute on the Chinese side: rule by what, then?

WANG: In the Chinese side, it's rule by -- traditionally, it's rule by prestige, rule by morals, rule by image and rule by human being, person. So when a man is in power, supposedly, he has all the power for life, basically. It's unchangeable, unsubstitutable.

In the United States, the man is powerful because he's in office. The power stays with the office. So it's a big difference here.

So, therefore, in the Chinese context, to preserve face, to give them something so they can step down is very important, much more important than in United States. United States is a great nation. Our president was impeached, but he functioned well. I mean, President Clinton functioned until the last minute as a leader. That would be totally unthinkable in the context of China or even in Japanese culture.

KAGAN: Great differences...

WANG: Yes.

KAGAN: ... in both. Dr. Wang, thank you for being with us.

WANG: It's always a pleasure.

KAGAN: Yes, always good to have you with us.

WANG: Thank you.

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