China: An angry backlash against the West

The Chinese are mad, said Edward Cody in The Washington Post, and they’re not going to take it anymore. When the 2008 Olympic torch recently traveled the world, protesters swarmed the planned “journey of harmony,” condemning China for its crackdown in Tibet, its support of the oppressive government in Sudan, and other human-rights abuses. Now, stung by the protests and negative press worldwide, the Chinese have launched an angry counteroffensive. With nationalistic pride, Chinese bloggers are accusing foreigners of anti-Chinese bigotry, and urging boycotts of Western businesses. Protests have erupted in the streets of major cities. Even Chinese immigrants to the U.S. are being swept up in the backlash of nationalistic fervor, said Shaila Dewan in The New York Times. “I believe in democracy,” said Minna Jia, a graduate student at the University of Southern California. “But I can’t stand for someone to criticize my country using biased ways. You are wearing Chinese clothes and you are using Chinese goods.”

If you look at China’s history, said Jayshree Bajoria in Newsweek, this surge in nationalism is not hard to understand. For a good 100 years—from the British seizure of Hong Kong in 1842 to the end of World War II—China believed it was at the mercy of “Western imperialism.” Now the nation has emerged as an economic and industrial superpower; hosting the Olympics was supposed to verify China’s new status. Younger, urban Chinese, who grew up without Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution, are particularly proud of their country, said Joshua Kurlantzick in the Los Angeles Times. “They can see that Shanghai and Beijing are catching up to Western cities, that Chinese multinationals can compete with the West, and they’ve lost their awe of Western power.” It enrages them when Americans and Europeans treat their nation as backward and brainwashed.

For now, it’s the West that’s alarmed by “the sight of thousands of Chinese people waving xenophobic fists,” said The Economist in an editorial. But China’s authoritarian government had better worry, too. China is modernizing at a breakneck pace, and its prosperity has come at the price of lung-searing pollution, fouled rivers, and rampant corruption. The Chinese are demanding better; their expectations have been raised by their country’s progress. “While the government may distract Chinese people from their domestic discontents by breathing fire at foreigners, such anger, once roused, can run out of control.” If Beijing isn’t careful, the surge of pride among its 1.3 billion people could easily turn into the kind of popular uprising its leaders most fear.

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