Is China a new Superior minded Hyper-Nationalist Nazi?, Why are Chinese so disliked outside of China? Options

[nr1]

DOUG SAUNDERS

April 19, 2008 at 12:05 AM EDT

LONDON — On Monday morning, I awoke to discover that I had become a media hero in China. My inbox contained three interview requests from Chinese media outlets, all of them wanting to know how I had managed to unearth the truth about Germany's secret plan to ruin the Olympics.

"Many Chinese people all over the world appreciate your work," wrote Xiaode, a reporter from the state-owned International Herald Leader in Beijing. "Would you like to say something to them?"

Most people in China have heard little about the protests and boycotts about the Olympics. They do know, from government websites inside the national Internet firewall, that "terrorists" and Tibetan "splittists" have been causing some trouble in the West and that they're coming from hostile governments, not from ordinary citizens.

And now they also know, thanks to a report carried on the state-owned Xinhua News Agency, that "according to a news report by Canadian journalist Doug Saunders," these attacks on China were orchestrated in a Washington-Berlin conspiracy that began when the German state-run Friedrich Naumann Foundation organized a conference in Brussels, attended by the U.S. State Department, where the whole anti-China plot was launched.
Doug Saunders

And, furthermore, according to an article in the China Daily that cites me, Chinese readers have learned that "the Lhasa riots" were "planned and organized long ago" by this same government-backed band of activists.

I went back to look at what I'd written, and it had very little to do with what China Daily's "Doug Saunders" said. The Brussels conference in question, which was a regular event for Tibet-rights groups, was not attended by the State Department or any government, and it was not organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which in turn is not owned or controlled by the German government. And the torch-relay protests that arose from that conference, whatever you may feel about them, have no relationship to the riots and uprisings inside Tibet.

It tells you something about the current dangerous state of events that millions of people inside China are willing to believe that there is a vast Western plot against them, and to congratulate me for "proving" this. But it tells you even more that hundreds of thousands of people living outside China are apparently willing to believe the same thing, despite having full access to free media — in fact, the social-networking sites of Web 2.0 have created a worldwide explosion of ethnic-Chinese nationalism.

What has taken people by surprise has been the willingness of a great many Westerners of Chinese descent to adopt the Communist Party of China's view of the Olympic standoff.

One typical e-mail came to me from a young man named Bin Wang, born to Chinese parents in a New England town, married to a white American woman, holding an advanced degree, well-travelled, fluent in English but not Chinese — that is, fairly typical of the pro-China movement. I know this because I actually phoned him to see if he was real and not a product of a back office in Beijing.

The protesters, he wrote, "ought to be ashamed of themselves. … This one strikes and wounds deep. … China disputes the West's self-given authority to draw a single, objective, moral line that China must toe. …

"What other government, in 60 years, can say it's done even half as much for 1.3 billion people as the Chinese Communist Party? Economic improvement is key. When the outlines are done, when the house is built, then you put away the broad brush for the finer one, then you worry about the wallpaper and light fixtures."

How, I asked him, could he so easily adopt the voice, the identity and even the phrases of an authoritarian government of a foreign country? Was he one of those many second-generation kids, from many cultures, who romanticize their parents' homeland to the point of embracing and embodying its worst qualities?

But Mr. Wang does not entirely fit this description. He happens to be critical of Chinese excesses, and he's definitely not a communist. But Beijing isn't communist any more, either; the CCP is now largely a nationalist party, and its main line of defence during this Olympic crisis to promote an ethnic-nationalist pride among members of the Han majority, who make up 90 per cent of China's population. It has been an alarmingly successful tactic, because it has tapped into a hidden well of ethnic pride, and given it a name.

I asked Mr. Wang how he and his friends could possibly identify with a party whose cruelties drove their parents to leave the country, and which seems to me like the greatest enemy of the Chinese people.

"Being Chinese," he replied, "is not something easily forgotten when you move to a new land. Perhaps we don't assimilate as well as others. But Chinese Americans are much more Chinese than Irish Americans are Irish. For them, it's neat to discover their past. For us, it is very much a part of who we are. And the CCP is responsible for bringing pride back into being who we are. And that is why Western Chinese still consider themselves very much Chinese and would use the term 'we' to connect ourselves to China."

But, I asked, isn't this giving in to a paternalistic myth? His view of the Beijing's regime as a kindly house builder portrays the Chinese as too weak to be trusted with the candy bowls and matchbooks of civil society without the helping hand of a strongman party.

To my surprise, he agreed with me, and turned this argument on its head, describing "paternalism" as exactly what the Chinese in his circle wanted and needed: Yes, he said, we need a paternal force ruling Beijing. For, without it, this ethnic nationalism will become more profound, more loud, more dangerous, and it will become a deadly menace.

Beijing, in other words, has become the guardian of the Chinese brand, the protector of the Han trademark: Without its dubious leadership, Mr. Wang and many others feel, the overseas Chinese will end up damaging their own hard-earned public image by going even further down the road of ethnic heavy-handedness.

It's a strong belief, and I don't think change will happen in China until someone else can claim ownership of this suddenly valuable brand.

This post has been edited by nr1: Apr 20 2008, 07:51 AM

[nr1]

Any opinions on this, lluk?

[orange peel]

thread title is inappropriate for the article posted.. where in the text does it say Chinese people are so hated in the west and are nazis;
are you just looking for a chance to call chinese "Superior minded Hyper-Nationalist Nazi"?
I don't understand why the reporter is so certain that those oversea Chinese's perspectives are wrong just because they're also the CCP's perspective;

the writer makes a somewhat stretch when he lays his conclusion: how does national pride (in over see Chinese) inhibit political reforms in china? how is being proud of your ethnicity going to lead us damaging our own hard earned public image??? and wth is ethnic heavy-handedness anyways

This post has been edited by orange peel: Apr 20 2008, 08:39 AM

[GreenGender]

Yes, the CCP is bad, but their acts do not outweigh the horrible killings, pillages and abuses that the West committed. If the West were committed in actually promoting ideals and realizing them, acting on behalf of all of humanity then they would probably repay for what they've done, but they don't. So why criticize China whose actions is influenced by the same economical reasons that made the West commit arguably the worst acts committed in History?

[Subotai]

LOL @ topic title (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Ecthelion]

You fail you gaoli barbarian. Go back to the speck of dust you call your homeland and sulk while you suck on GI c@ck.

[nr1]

I'd rather much be a gaoli barbarian. Thanks for the complement.

[kunomchu]

go fu-k yourself f@g

[woaimeinu]

Overseas Chinese are successful despite the hatred directed against them, and China is growing quickly based on the hardwork of its people alone and not colonialism. This scares and frustrates some people in Western countries, and some will go as far as brainwashing themselves and others that China is the source of their nations problems. Its clear to see that these people(like nr1) are the real modern day Nazis.

[kludge]

Overseas Chinese are successful despite the hatred directed against them, and China is growing quickly based on the hardwork of its people alone and not colonialism. This scares and frustrates some people in Western countries, and some will go as far as brainwashing themselves and others that China is the source of their nations problems. Its clear to see that these people(like nr1) are the real modern day Nazis.

Yeah, omg, tell me about it dude-

The only thing that irks me and makes me feel annoyed is how westerners still percieve China like it's their private production house. Like how by owning a piece of hardware that's Made in China automatically makes them own the nation itself.

AND don't forget those pro-tibet/anti-China d!ckcheese's that I put up with everyday of my life.

[Titanium]

To the TS,

You know if you actually provided a link to the article, I'm pretty sure the title is not how you so aptly described it.

[bunnysecks]

I dunno, did we do a final solution on these gaoli barbarians? Is that why they are so bitter? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon_neutral.gif)

[kludge]

I dunno, did we do a final solution on these gaoli barbarians? Is that why they are so bitter? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon_neutral.gif)

Sigh, who cares about the barbarians.

They are old balding fat men trolling our club trying to get hot @$$ when everyone secretly laugh and ridicule them.

[han2]

Closing as requested.