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Xenophobia Is Not The Road For China's Rise To Great Power
I write about Asian dynamics in the context of global disorder. Full bio
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In 2012 the World Bank and the PRC Development Research Center of the State Council published a report entitled China 2030, subtitled: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society. It is a visionary, aspirational, but, at the same time, realistic charter.
In essence it states: “If China seizes its opportunities, meets its challenges, and manages its risks, by 2030 it will become: A high income economy, with harmonious social, environmental, and global relations, driven by creativity and the power of ideas”.
There are of course many “ifs”. For starters, whether it becomes a high income economy will require that China escape the “middle-income-trap” – by no means a given. Can creativity and the power of ideas flourish in an authoritarian political environment? Harmonious social, environmental and global relations also pose significant challenges. On balance, however, among my students, for example, the overall consensus is that China will achieve its 2030 vision. If this were to be the case, it would be fantastic for China and for the world.
But then late last month appeared the publication by the Chinese Communist Party of the draft Foreign NGO Management Law. Although there is more than occasional xenophobic rhetoric emerging from the CCP and its agents, the draft law nevertheless had the effect of a bombshell among foreign observers and the increasingly many cosmopolitan young Chinese – the main hope of the next generation, those who can make the 2030 dream come true.
As Jerome Cohen, one of the most experienced, distinguished and balanced China experts wrote in an article (with Ira Belkin) entitled “Will China Close Its Doors?”: “If the NGO draft becomes law, the international cultural, educational and technical exchanges that have become commonplace and so essential to China’s astonishing development may come to a grinding halt.”
A senior Chinese official, member of the party and good friend frequently insists: “China needs the world; the world needs China”. Yet at the moment, China’s relations with various parts of the world, especially with some of its Asian neighbors, and also with the US, are somewhat fraught. Were the road to xenophobia embarked upon the costs to both China and the world would be enormous.
Retrospectives
In putting things into retro-perspective, the first point to note is that for much of history of the last two-hundred years the Chinese people have been the targets and victims of xenophobia, as well as all-out imperialism, impoverishment and subjugation by the West and Japan. What the Chinese refer to as their “era of humiliation” – from the first opium war in 1839 to the Liberation in October 1949 – was no figment of their imagination. Thus the Chinese were not only killed and physically wounded in the numerous campaigns led by Western powers against China – and then brutally massacred, tortured and raped by the Japanese (1937-1945) – but humiliated in virtually every respect. They were stripped of their dignity as human beings.
This included the numerous cartoons depicting the Chinese as buck-toothed spectacled idiots or monsters, in the depiction of the Yellow Peril hanging over Europe (see illustration above), in the so-called Chinese coolie trade, including as indentured labor to build railways across the North American continent, in the caricatured horror stories and characters, such as Fu Manchu (see illustration below) by Sax Rohmer, and so on!
In 1882 the US Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, forbidding Chinese immigration to the US. It was officially repealed in 1943 – at a time when, after all, China was America’s ally, with massive casualites, against Japan in the Pacific War – but de facto its effects lasted another twenty years. The Australians brought in Chinese indentured labor in the mid-19th century, then limited and sought to exclude Chinese migrants, especially during the years of the White Australia Policy. In Australia also the Chinese were made the butt of racist abuse (see illustration below). Australian doors to Chinese migrants did not open until the premiership of Bob Hawke in the mid/late 1980s.
While the Chinese have been at the receiving end of foreign (principally Western and Japanese) xenophobia, there is also a xenophobic streak in Chinese history, political philosophy and society. China has a traditional sense of superiority in all respects vis-à-vis foreigners who by definition are “barbarians”. Had China’s response to the arrival of British imperialist gunboats in the late 18th/early 19th centuries been more “pragmatic” rather than based on a combination of official ideology and deep-rooted contempt for the outside world, things might not have turned out as destructively and turbulently as they did.
Xenophobia was an ideological and rhetorical leitmotiv of the Maoist years and especially of course during the Cultural Revolution (see illustration below) when everything foreign was the enemy of the Chinese people. Communist Party attacks on “western spiritual and cultural pollution” have continued during and in spite of the years of reform, as China opened up to the world and the Chinese in droves – business executives, scientists, students, artists, and now over a hundred million outbound tourists – explored the world.
Perspectives
The Chinese have a lot of good reason to be angry and bitter. As a Frenchman I need to ask myself and my compatriots how we would feel about the Chinese had we been humiliated by them as they were by us, especially had Chinese troops pillaged, sacked and destroyed the Louvre as we pillaged, sacked and destroyed the Summer Palace in our assault of Beijing during the Second Opium War (1858-1860)?
Not only is the West not remorseful over the barbarities committed against Chinese people and Chinese culture, but for the most part Westerners are not even aware. (When I hand out my “literacy tests” in executive education sessions with Western managers, it is the case that even among those who regularly travel for business to China, only a minority have heard of the Opium Wars and virtually none are aware of the sacking of the Summer Palace.) As to the Japanese, their cruel denial and amnesia understandably wound Chinese spirits.
But the Chinese should avoid the xenophobic road not out of a sense of forgiveness vis-à-vis the West, but out of enlightened self-interest. Do the Chinese want to achieve the 2030 goals? Do they want to become a “modern, harmonious, and creative high-income society”? It is impossible for Chinese to achieve that without reasonably harmonious global relations. In the pursuit of wealth and to escape the middle-income-trap, significant efforts will need to be exerted in science, innovation and education. At the moment there are very large numbers of Chinese doing PhDs in science and engineering subjects. Will they turn their backs on that because of the risks of being polluted by Western values? When choosing the cat, is it not best to follow Deng Xiaoping’s advice and take one that catches mice rather than, as in Cultural Revolution Days, one that is red! The slogan for university entrance and faculty recruitment during the Cultural Revolution was: “better red than expert”. Look at the havoc that caused.
China of 2015 is not only incomparably richer in material terms than it was forty years ago, but also infinitely culturally richer, encompassing both indigenous Chinese and imported western culture. As I wrote in an earlier blog, especially impressive has been China’s love affair with Western classical music. See, for example, the illustration below of Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit conducting Mahler’s eighth symphony with the China Philharmonic Orchestra at the annual Beijing autumn music festival. This stands out in most harmonious contrast with the hysterical virulence of the “anti-Beethoven” campaigns by the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution.
We stand at the threshold of what could be a great renaissance of the Chinese economy, Chinese society and Chinese culture. The 2030 vision can be achieved. But the road to xenophobia must by all means be avoided. The cadres responsible for the drafting of the foreign NGO law and other outpourings of xenophobic rhetoric should be pensioned off and given the Little Red Book for their reading – where they will feel in their comfort zone. They are part of a tumultuous past and should have nothing to do that might hamper the prospects and dreams of current and future Chinese generations.
May hundreds and hundreds of creative and harmonious flowers open and bloom!
In essence it states: “If China seizes its opportunities, meets its challenges, and manages its risks, by 2030 it will become: A high income economy, with harmonious social, environmental, and global relations, driven by creativity and the power of ideas”.
There are of course many “ifs”. For starters, whether it becomes a high income economy will require that China escape the “middle-income-trap” – by no means a given. Can creativity and the power of ideas flourish in an authoritarian political environment? Harmonious social, environmental and global relations also pose significant challenges. On balance, however, among my students, for example, the overall consensus is that China will achieve its 2030 vision. If this were to be the case, it would be fantastic for China and for the world.
But then late last month appeared the publication by the Chinese Communist Party of the draft Foreign NGO Management Law. Although there is more than occasional xenophobic rhetoric emerging from the CCP and its agents, the draft law nevertheless had the effect of a bombshell among foreign observers and the increasingly many cosmopolitan young Chinese – the main hope of the next generation, those who can make the 2030 dream come true.
As Jerome Cohen, one of the most experienced, distinguished and balanced China experts wrote in an article (with Ira Belkin) entitled “Will China Close Its Doors?”: “If the NGO draft becomes law, the international cultural, educational and technical exchanges that have become commonplace and so essential to China’s astonishing development may come to a grinding halt.”
A senior Chinese official, member of the party and good friend frequently insists: “China needs the world; the world needs China”. Yet at the moment, China’s relations with various parts of the world, especially with some of its Asian neighbors, and also with the US, are somewhat fraught. Were the road to xenophobia embarked upon the costs to both China and the world would be enormous.
Retrospectives
In putting things into retro-perspective, the first point to note is that for much of history of the last two-hundred years the Chinese people have been the targets and victims of xenophobia, as well as all-out imperialism, impoverishment and subjugation by the West and Japan. What the Chinese refer to as their “era of humiliation” – from the first opium war in 1839 to the Liberation in October 1949 – was no figment of their imagination. Thus the Chinese were not only killed and physically wounded in the numerous campaigns led by Western powers against China – and then brutally massacred, tortured and raped by the Japanese (1937-1945) – but humiliated in virtually every respect. They were stripped of their dignity as human beings.
This included the numerous cartoons depicting the Chinese as buck-toothed spectacled idiots or monsters, in the depiction of the Yellow Peril hanging over Europe (see illustration above), in the so-called Chinese coolie trade, including as indentured labor to build railways across the North American continent, in the caricatured horror stories and characters, such as Fu Manchu (see illustration below) by Sax Rohmer, and so on!
In 1882 the US Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, forbidding Chinese immigration to the US. It was officially repealed in 1943 – at a time when, after all, China was America’s ally, with massive casualites, against Japan in the Pacific War – but de facto its effects lasted another twenty years. The Australians brought in Chinese indentured labor in the mid-19th century, then limited and sought to exclude Chinese migrants, especially during the years of the White Australia Policy. In Australia also the Chinese were made the butt of racist abuse (see illustration below). Australian doors to Chinese migrants did not open until the premiership of Bob Hawke in the mid/late 1980s.
While the Chinese have been at the receiving end of foreign (principally Western and Japanese) xenophobia, there is also a xenophobic streak in Chinese history, political philosophy and society. China has a traditional sense of superiority in all respects vis-à-vis foreigners who by definition are “barbarians”. Had China’s response to the arrival of British imperialist gunboats in the late 18th/early 19th centuries been more “pragmatic” rather than based on a combination of official ideology and deep-rooted contempt for the outside world, things might not have turned out as destructively and turbulently as they did.
Xenophobia was an ideological and rhetorical leitmotiv of the Maoist years and especially of course during the Cultural Revolution (see illustration below) when everything foreign was the enemy of the Chinese people. Communist Party attacks on “western spiritual and cultural pollution” have continued during and in spite of the years of reform, as China opened up to the world and the Chinese in droves – business executives, scientists, students, artists, and now over a hundred million outbound tourists – explored the world.
PerspectivesThe Chinese have a lot of good reason to be angry and bitter. As a Frenchman I need to ask myself and my compatriots how we would feel about the Chinese had we been humiliated by them as they were by us, especially had Chinese troops pillaged, sacked and destroyed the Louvre as we pillaged, sacked and destroyed the Summer Palace in our assault of Beijing during the Second Opium War (1858-1860)?
Not only is the West not remorseful over the barbarities committed against Chinese people and Chinese culture, but for the most part Westerners are not even aware. (When I hand out my “literacy tests” in executive education sessions with Western managers, it is the case that even among those who regularly travel for business to China, only a minority have heard of the Opium Wars and virtually none are aware of the sacking of the Summer Palace.) As to the Japanese, their cruel denial and amnesia understandably wound Chinese spirits.
But the Chinese should avoid the xenophobic road not out of a sense of forgiveness vis-à-vis the West, but out of enlightened self-interest. Do the Chinese want to achieve the 2030 goals? Do they want to become a “modern, harmonious, and creative high-income society”? It is impossible for Chinese to achieve that without reasonably harmonious global relations. In the pursuit of wealth and to escape the middle-income-trap, significant efforts will need to be exerted in science, innovation and education. At the moment there are very large numbers of Chinese doing PhDs in science and engineering subjects. Will they turn their backs on that because of the risks of being polluted by Western values? When choosing the cat, is it not best to follow Deng Xiaoping’s advice and take one that catches mice rather than, as in Cultural Revolution Days, one that is red! The slogan for university entrance and faculty recruitment during the Cultural Revolution was: “better red than expert”. Look at the havoc that caused.
China of 2015 is not only incomparably richer in material terms than it was forty years ago, but also infinitely culturally richer, encompassing both indigenous Chinese and imported western culture. As I wrote in an earlier blog, especially impressive has been China’s love affair with Western classical music. See, for example, the illustration below of Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit conducting Mahler’s eighth symphony with the China Philharmonic Orchestra at the annual Beijing autumn music festival. This stands out in most harmonious contrast with the hysterical virulence of the “anti-Beethoven” campaigns by the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution.
We stand at the threshold of what could be a great renaissance of the Chinese economy, Chinese society and Chinese culture. The 2030 vision can be achieved. But the road to xenophobia must by all means be avoided. The cadres responsible for the drafting of the foreign NGO law and other outpourings of xenophobic rhetoric should be pensioned off and given the Little Red Book for their reading – where they will feel in their comfort zone. They are part of a tumultuous past and should have nothing to do that might hamper the prospects and dreams of current and future Chinese generations.
May hundreds and hundreds of creative and harmonious flowers open and bloom!
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