Cultural revolution-II

‘‘For a few years ahead, it will still be the United States as No.1, but soon it will be China,’’ Long, the son of a Thai businessman, confidently predicted as he showed off the stone, tiles and willow trees imported from China to decorate the courtyard at the Sirindhorn Chinese Language and Culture Center, which opened a year ago.

The centre is part of China’s expanding presence across Southeast Asia and the Pacific, where Beijing is making a big push to market itself and its language, similar to the way the United States promoted its culture and values during the Cold War. It is not a hard sell, particularly to young Asians eager to cement cultural bonds as China deepens its economic and political interests in the region.

Put off from visiting the US by the difficulty of gaining visas after 9/11, more and more Southeast Asians are travelling to China as students and tourists. Likewise, Chinese tourists, less fearful than Americans of the threat of being targets of terrorism, are becoming the dominant tourist group in the region, outnumbering Americans in places like Thailand and fast catching up to the ubiquitous Japanese.

As the new Chinese tourists from the rapidly expanding middle class travel, they carry with them an image of a vastly different and more inviting China than even just a few years ago, richer, more confident and more influential. ‘‘Among some countries, China fever seems to be replacing China fear,’’ said Wang Gungwu, the director of the East Asian Institute at National University in Singapore.

Overall, China’s stepped up endeavours in cultural persuasion remain modest compared with those of the US , and American popular culture, from Hollywood movies to MTV, is still vastly more exportable and accessible, all agree. The US also holds the balance of raw military power in the region. But the trend is clear, educators and diplomats here say: The Americans are losing influence.

As China ramps up its cultural and language presence, Washington is ratcheting down, ceding territory that was virtually all its own when China was trapped in its hard Communist shell.

‘‘The Chinese are actively expanding their public diplomacy while we are cutting back or just holding our own,’’ said Paul Blackburn, a former public affairs officer of the US Information Service who served at four American embassies in Asia in the 1980s and 1990s.

China Radio International, with light fare and upbeat news and features, now broadcasts in English 24 hours a day, while Voice of America broadcasts 19 hours and will soon be cut back to 14 hours, he said. CCTV-9, China’s flagship English-language television channel, which features suave news anchors and cultural and entertainment shows, is broadcast worldwide. America may have CNN International, but in the realm of public policy, the US has ‘‘nothing comparable,’’ Blackburn says.

Across Southeast Asia, American centres run by the State Department’s US Information Service, which once offered English-language training and library services, were closed and staff was cut as part of the worldwide cutbacks in the 1990s.

The impact is still being felt. In Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, the three US information centres were shut. A new program, ‘‘American Corners,’’ provides books, computers and databases for a handful of Indonesian university libraries, but it has less impact, American diplomats said.

As Washington cuts back, China is providing concrete alternatives. The Chinese President and Communist Party chief, Hu Jintao, made clear the importance of China’s cultural offensive to Beijing when he addressed the Australian Parliament last year. ‘‘The Chinese culture belongs not only to the Chinese but also to the whole world,’’ he grandly offered. ‘‘We stand ready to step up cultural exchanges with the rest of the world in a joint promotion of cultural prosperity.’’

The invitation is being accepted by growing numbers of Asian students who are taking advantage of proliferating opportunities for higher education in China. No longer are status-conscious Asian families mortified if their children fail to qualify for elite US universities, parents say. A berth in a Chinese university is seen as a pragmatic solution. In Malaysia, students of non-Chinese background are flocking to primary schools where Chinese is taught, a reversal of a more than three-decade trend, said N.C. Siew, the editor of the country’s major Chinese-language newspaper, Sin Chew Daily.

In Indonesia, the elite long favoured US universities. The founding generation of government technocrats was called the ‘‘Berkeley mafia’’ because so many were graduates from the Berkeley campus of the University of California.

Today, the numbers tell a startling story, especially in Indonesia, a US ally where relations with China have been historically difficult.

Last year, 2,563 Indonesian students received visas to go to China for study, according to the Chinese Embassy in Jakarta, a 51 per cent increase over the previous year. By comparison, only 1,333 Indonesian students received visas for study in the US in 2003, the US consul general in Jakarta says. That was a precipitous drop from the 6,250 student visas the office said it issued in 2000 and part of a worldwide decline after 9/11.

Although many educators in Southeast Asia welcome the new openness to China, even longtime friends of the US say China’s influence appears to be growing at America’s expense. ‘‘You are losing ground, that’s a fact of life,’’ said Tanun Anumanrajadhon, the vice president of international affairs at Chiang Mai University. ‘‘People here are talking of China and economics. People don’t care about democracy now.’’

The difference in ambition is noticeable, others say. “China wants to be more influential here to replace America,” Vanchai Sirichana, the president of Mae Fah Luang University, where the Sirindhorn Chinese culture center was opened early this year under the patronage of the Thai royal family.

“China is very aggressive in terms of contributions.” Vanchai said he had proposed a balancing act to the US ambassador to Thailand, Darryl Johnson. “I said, what about collaboration between the American government and universities in this area, because our door is open,” Vanchai said.

“He just laughed; there was no answer,” Vanchai said, indicating that the ambassador’s reaction was one of sorrow. A diplomat on Johnson’s staff confirmed the incident. He said the ambassador’s hands were tied; there was no money coming from Washington.