China targets 'hostile foreign forces' in crescendo of accusations
| Beijing
Chinese President Xi Jinping is making the most of his role as host of the current Asian economic summit here, gladhanding heads of state from both sides of the Pacific, seeking to strengthen China鈥檚 trade ties with its neighbors and burnishing his personal image as an international statesman.
听But at home, President Xi鈥檚 ruling Communist party is showing increasingly little tolerance for foreign ideas or international influences. As pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong stretch into their second month, for example, the Chinese government has not tired of blaming them on 鈥渉ostile foreign forces鈥�,听led by听the United States.
听Nor does it end in Hong Kong. In recent months, China鈥檚 official media have fired off a crescendo of accusations, sometimes verging on xenophobia, that lay all manner of ills at the door of subversive Western conspirators.
听The听ruling Communist听party鈥檚 mouthpiece, the People's Daily, has run 42 articles so far this year blaming听China鈥檚听domestic difficulties on hostile 鈥淲estern鈥�, 鈥渇oreign鈥� or 鈥渙verseas鈥� forces. That is nearly听triple the output听of similar pieces in the first 10 months of last year,听and is mirrored in听a range of other official papers, websites and TV channels.
The steady drumbeat of denunciation听gives the impression that听President Xi Jinping is turning his back on one of the principles that has guided听post-Maoist听China鈥檚 foreign policy听鈥� closer engagement with听erstwhile adversaries like Britain and the US.
鈥淲e are seeing a reversal of 35 years of Chinese history,鈥� says Zhang Jian, a politics professor at Peking University. 鈥淔or the last three decades we tried to invite and embrace the outside world. Now the government is using a demonized west to buttress its legitimacy.鈥澨�
The trend is 鈥渜uite disturbing,鈥� says Susan Shirk, a senior China policymaker in the Clinton administration. 鈥淚t seems that Xi Jinping is throwing China and the US into a new ideological cold war.鈥�
听A broad range of charges
A broad range of problems are being blamed on听ill-defined听hostile foreign forces, starting with the Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong that are demanding more democratic rights for citizens there than Beijing is ready to concede. Tibetan unrest, the spread of 鈥渦niversal values鈥� 鈥撎齛s opposed to听Chinese socialist values 鈥� and rising terrorist violence in the predominantly Muslim province of Xinjiang are among other challenges attributed to outside enemies.
听Behind the complaints, says Prof. Shirk, who heads the 21st 听Century China Program at the University of California, San Diego, is President Xi鈥檚 desire 鈥渢o draw a clear and hostile contrast between the Chinese system 鈥� and Western political values. He is creating an ideological conflict between Communist party values and foreign values 鈥� to mobilize commitment to the party.鈥�
Chinese media are short on specifics as to how 鈥渉ostile foreign forces鈥� are conspiring to undermine China鈥檚 rule.听The People's Daily overseas edition earlier this month argued that 鈥渋t is hardly likely that the US will admit to manipulating the 鈥極ccupy Central鈥� movement, just as it will not admit to manipulating other anti-China forces. It sees such activities as justified by 鈥榙emocracy,鈥� 鈥榝reedom,鈥� 鈥榟uman rights,鈥� and other values.鈥�
'Western encirclement'
In Hong Kong, suggests Andrew Kennedy, who teaches Chinese politics at Australian National University in Canberra, the Chinese government 鈥渋s trying to delegitimize the protest movement by associating it with foreigners instead of letting the protesters paint themselves as patriotic Chinese.鈥�
But long before the students took to the streets听in late September听a prominent Chinese military figure, Gen. Luo Yuan, was听already听warning that Occupy Central was intended as part of 鈥渁n unprecedented direct and indirect Western encirclement鈥� of China.
听Earlier in the year Losan Jamcan, the head of the Tibetan People's Congress 鈥� the official provincial parliament 鈥� said in a televised speech that, 鈥渢he struggle between us and hostile Western forces 鈥� is a major political struggle, a matter of unity or division, democracy or autocracy.鈥�
More broadly, officials have framed all foreign reporting from China as driven by the goal of regime change.听 In March,听the spokeswoman for China鈥檚 National People's Congress, Fu Ying, told foreign reporters before parliament鈥檚 annual session that she knew their purpose in reporting from China was 鈥渢o overturn our system of government.鈥� She would brook no argument.
More recently, an article produced by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and published in People's Daily accused 鈥渉ostile Western forces鈥� of exaggerating the number of people who died during the Great Leap Forward in order to 鈥渄eny the legitimacy鈥� of the Communist party. More than 30 million victims are believed to have died of starvation during Mao Zedong鈥檚 disastrous attempt to industrialize China at the end of the 1950s, though the Chinese authorities have never given an official account of the tragedy.听
听And at the end of last month, the former Vice President of CASS, Li Shenmin, warned听in a People's Daily article听that 鈥渁 multi-party system and direct elections鈥� are 鈥減recisely in line with the 鈥榬oadmap鈥� set by domestic and foreign hostile forces for our country to make us integrate with Western capitalism.鈥�
Perhaps the most definitive and authoritative account of the threat that hostile foreign forces are perceived to pose听came from听Han Qingxiang, deputy head of education at the Central Party School, the guardian shrine of Communist party orthodoxy.听
鈥淗ostile Western forces鈥� struggle against us generally takes the form of cultural penetration and the spread of western social thought, using 鈥榝reedom, democracy and human rights鈥� as target points,鈥� Mr. Han wrote听in a听July 23听article.
听He warned that Western nongovernmental organizations and foreign academics carried this contagion, 鈥渦sing academic study, communication, and visits to mask their political intentions.鈥�
Xi himself is reported to have used the phrase 鈥榟ostile foreign forces鈥� on at least two occasions. And in a speech last month excoriating artists who do not serve socialist goals, the president warmly praised the 鈥減ositive energy鈥� shown by Zhou Xiaoping, a young blogger in the audience who is notorious for his anti-US and radically nationalist online rants.
In an article posted last year, Mr. Zhou called American democracy 鈥渁 nightmare for the whole human race,鈥� since 鈥渁ll America鈥檚 wealth comes from squeezing the rest of the world.鈥�
A 1949 reflex
Casting blame on foreign or Western hostile forces听is a reflex that dates back to the 1949 revolution that brought Mao to power in China.听It has been in and out of fashion ever since, says Qian Gang, a scholar at Hong Kong University鈥檚 China Media Project, who has studied the trend.
Mr. Qian, who calls the phrase an example of 鈥渄eep red鈥� language, says its rate of use in official media is a telling clue about the prevailing political atmosphere. It peaked after the Tiananmen protests and political crackdown in 1989, for example.
鈥淚t is not a new trope, but it has become a more prevalent way of framing domestic problems,鈥� says Shirk. 鈥淚t is now much more in the foreground.鈥澨�
She says she finds that 鈥減uzzling鈥� because it runs counter to Beijing鈥檚 oft-stated desire for better ties with the United States within the framework of a 鈥渘ew great power relationship.鈥澨�
The trend is also at odds with听the reality of a modern nation infused with foreign capital, ideas, and culture.听Chinese universities听continue听set up schools funded by foreign benefactors, and the government听runs well-funded programs听to attract foreign experts in science and other fields. China attracted $118 billion in direct foreign investment in 2013, a record amount, and that trend shows no sign of slowing, even as regulators crack down on Western firms such as Microsoft, GlaxoSmithKline, and Qualcomm.
Yet听as the government adopts an increasingly strident tone on topics ranging from territorial disputes to the prospect of national rejuvenation as a world power, it is using nationalism to stir citizens鈥� hearts.
鈥淔or that, they need foreign enemies,鈥� says Prof. Zhang. 鈥淏laming foreigners is an old trick, but the way this administration has been using it suggests a general ideological change of mind and direction.鈥�
