China Steps Up to Role of Rising Regional Leader

China’s presence in the global effort to aid tsunami victims is hard to miss here.

The country’s large, red tents are pitched in the middle of the town’s air force base, the center of regional relief operations. Its team, which includes 16 emergency doctors, is larger than that of any other foreign country on the base and has made frequent runs to remote villages, treating about 1,000 victims a day. China’s monetary pledge has topped $63 million, its largest peacetime overseas humanitarian donation.

The Chinese emphasize that they are just trying to respond appropriately to the massive disaster.

But others say that there is another reason that China is taking such an active role: As a rising regional power, it is eager to recast itself as a kinder and gentler neighbor.

“China’s trying to raise its soft power profile, to present itself as good citizens of global community,” said Richard Baum, director of the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies.

China’s growing role, which will probably be reinforced today at a tsunami recovery summit in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, stands in contrast to that of the United States.

For the last half a century, the U.S. has been by far the biggest power player in Asia. But in recent years, its dominance has been eroding, in part because of Washington’s preoccupation with the U.S.-declared war on terrorism, which many here perceive as an exercise in unilateralism.

China’s star has been rising as it works to change its reputation from that of a menacing competitor, with a history of mistrust among Southeast Asian nations, to an engine of regional growth.

Analysts see China’s stepped-up relief efforts as part of its growing influence in Asia. It has already become a key economic player in the region, emerging as the most important trading partner for countries such as Indonesia.

To further its success, “China must win the hearts of the countries in Asia, especially Southeast Asia,” said Riza Sihbudi, head of international political development at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, a government think tank in Jakarta.

As its influence increases, he said, China “will threaten the U.S. interest in Southeast Asia.”

China’s pledge of more than $63 million in relief aid is small compared with those of Japan and United States, which have promised $500 million and $350 million, respectively. In addition, Taiwan, the island Beijing stakes claim over, has pledged $50 million for the relief effort.

Beijing responds to questions about the size of its donation by pointing out that the per-capita income in China, about $5,000 in terms of international purchasing power, remains relatively low. And until recently, China was mostly on the receiving end of foreign aid and is not yet in a position to compete with the United States.

“China is still a developing nation. Its foreign aid budget is relatively small,” said Zhu Feng, an expert on international security at Peking University. “The United States is No. 1 in that regard, and its influence in the region continues to be tremendous.”

Still, Beijing’s stature has grown steadily since the Asian currency crisis in the late 1990s, when China’s booming economy helped fuel a regional rebound.

Over the years, deep-seated suspicions about China have eased and relations between Jakarta and Beijing, which had been frosty since the late 1960s when Indonesia cracked down against communism, have vastly improved.

China’s military hasn’t joined the tsunami relief efforts, even though the United States and other nations have sent both civilian and defense personnel to Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and other areas hit by the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami.

Some Chinese officials have suggested that Indonesia may not have wanted Beijing to send its military for the relief efforts. But Yuri O. Thamrin, a spokesman for Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry in Jakarta, said Wednesday that he couldn’t explain why China had not sent troops.

Of Beijing’s overall aid efforts, he said: “We appreciate very much the help and assistance. For us, China is an important country

Among Indonesia’s allies, Thamrin said, China, along with the U.S., Japan and Australia, made up the “core countries.” These nations will probably lead the discussion in today’s emergency tsunami meeting, which Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will be attending.

Some analysts think friction will increase among the four dominant nations. To some extent, they say, that is evident in the relief efforts.

“There’s an aspect of politics and competition. If you help with a small amount of money compared with your neighbors, there will be critics from many sides,” said Dewi Fortuna Anwar, an analyst at Habibie Center, a private think tank in Jakarta. “The Chinese feel they cannot look like they’re one step behind other countries. They have big power to help in this region.”

China, for its part, plays up the philanthropic aspect of its aid and downplays the competition among international powers.

Indra Wahidin, head of the Chinese committee at the Chamber of Commerce in North Sumatra, said he regarded China’s tsunami relief work as strictly an expression of humanitarianism.

What’s more, he said, it would take years for China to establish a leadership role like the United States has in the Pacific region, in part because other countries will keep pushing to maintain their dominance.

In Indonesia, ethnic Chinese account for less than 3% of the population, but make a far higher economic contribution. In the last few years, Chinese language and culture have gained in popularity.

The tsunami tragedy hit home for China’s emerging middle class, for whom Southeast Asia has become a popular holiday destination. Three people from mainland China have been confirmed dead, and the government has rushed to help scores of Chinese tourists stranded in ravaged resort towns.

Intense media coverage of the tragedy that has left more than 150,000 dead in 11 Indian Ocean nations has also sparked the spirit of giving in a country still fairly new to the idea of charity. The Chinese Red Cross said it had collected more than $3 million in private donations, surpassing Beijing’s initial official pledge of $2.6 million.

The Chinese search and rescue team arrived in Banda Aceh on New Year’s Eve, sleeping on the airport tarmac and then heading out to remote villages.

On Tuesday, they found thousands of people in need of assistance in the town of Jatho, about 40 miles away. The town has only one functioning hospital with 20 beds, and the team set to work treating tsunami survivors.

The team has reported two cases of malaria in outlying villages, but its members said they were unsure whether the disease had spread widely.

The team members, who in 2003 responded to deadly earthquakes in Algeria and Iran, have been horrified at the conditions in Indonesia.

“The relief is still very difficult,” said Huang Jianfa, director of China’s department of earthquake disasters. “The scale of the disaster is so great.”

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Times staff writer Ching-Ching Ni in Beijing and special correspondent Sandra Nahdar in Banda Aceh contributed to this report.