Less communism, more nationalism
The irony that seems to be lost within the country is that China actively promotes itself as an anti-imperialist power, but, consistently seems to act with the mindset of a colonial power.
In early July, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) celebrated its 100th anniversary. It was obviously a huge deal not just for the longevity but the more recent successes the party has seen on the world’s stage.
The story of China’s amazing growth has been told many times from an economic angle. By and large, that story has been very positive not just for China and its development, access to technology, creation of large-scale infrastructure… but also for the countries that leveraged their cheaper and skilled workforce and manufacturing capabilities. Global customers didn’t quite care early on about where their products were made and were happy that they were much cheaper; companies supported those decisions for financial reasons.
The storyline for the 100th anniversary celebrations of CPC (Communist Party of China) had to be perfect. Many issues (good and not so good) were carefully addressed in the months preceding the celebrations. These include the claims on the South China Sea, the Security Law in Hong Kong and the clampdown of the democratic dissent, the Mars rover mission, the Covid-19 vaccine diplomacy, the strong stances around trade with the US and Australia, forcing airlines to remove Taiwan and Hong Kong from being denoted as separate countries, etc.
Border skirmishes
Given the border skirmishes India had with China, the latter’s global aspirations are matters for serious concern. Some are seen in her annexing land; others include transgressions of marine fishing, minerals and metals, supply chain infrastructure (like ports and roads) and even buying loyalties through aid and funding. China’s territorial aspirations are the most visible and talked about.
One of the lines from Xi’s speech that gathered a lot of attention was this: “anybody who tries to bully, oppress or subjugate China will find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people.”
History of CCP
To understand why this bullying tactics is important for Xi and the country, it is critical to look at the state of the country when the CCP was launched a hundred years ago. China was weak and many other countries had staked claims to large swathes of its land. Like Berlin many decades later, Shanghai had been divvied up among a few foreign powers, Hong Kong had been ceded to Britain and Germany was in control of the Shandong Peninsula
During World War I, China’s leaders supplied a lot of troops to help defeat Germany and tried to get the Shandong Peninsula back. However, even after the defeat of Germany, the Western powers passed control of Shandong to Japan.
This really sparked a lot of anger in China and as a result, Marxism started gaining traction and, in 1921, with support from the then newly created Soviet Union, the Communist Party of China (CPC)was born. And given China’s condition then, one of the party’s main objectives was fighting imperialism.
The Rosy, Doctored storylines…
One of the interesting things about China is that history is constantly rewritten and edited to project an absolutely rosy storyline. The many failures under Mao Zedong – particularly the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution – are removed from the CCP records. Even though China normalised relations with the west in the 1970s, most of these failures were largely ignored by the other countries as these seem to be internal issues in a fractured and developing country.
1989 changed all of that. The strong reaction to the Tiananmen Square protests that year and the crushing of the pro-democracy protests, reignited the worrying narrative and restarted the mistrust phase. China was being increasingly cornered and needed to find an ideology to pivot to and keep its population from revolting. And the CCP then decided to highlight less of the “communism” aspect of its party and nation and more of the “nationalism” aspect. Rallying people around the new ideology meant creating narratives that proclaimed that China being held down by other powers and/or that they are jealous of its progress. This remains a particularly strong message today and it is taught formally in academic institutions, highlighted in the party TV and print media, in movies and even propaganda reels masquerading as documentaries.
Pride and resignation
And this has worked quite well for the most part. In talking with many Chinese friends – many in the mainland – there is the sense of pride coupled with resignation. Pride comes from things like becoming the second largest economy in the world, earned legitimacy in global bodies like the Security Council, technological advancements in areas like electric cars, high speed trains, digital payments and space missions. Resignation comes from having to accept that, unlike in most parts of the world, these successes – in standard of living, military and financial strength, internet revolution – haven’t triggered freedom of expression, in more democratic processes, privacy concerns, …
Ying is a friend born and educated in China and aboard, a global traveler based in Singapore now and works in a major consulting firm. She explains that even her parents, who haven’t lived anywhere except the small town they were born in, don’t buy the staged PR coverage and propaganda around the centenary celebrations. She mentioned her mother commenting on the thousands of soldiers and visitors clapping adoringly at every word Xi Jinping uttered and saying: “surely things can’t be this amazing. There has got to be at least a few problems in the country; we see several ourselves and we just don’t talk about this.”
The irony that seems to be lost within the country is that China actively promotes itself as an anti-imperialist power, but, consistently seems to act with the mindset of a colonial power.
The world is watching. Sometimes China pretends to be blind. – By a special correspondent
