“The Olympics is a unique lever with the Chinese, and we’re not going to get another one — it ain’t happening again.”On the other hand, the Chinese are obviously not such a big fan of this strategy. The Olympics are their coming-out party, and nobody likes it when others rain on their parade. Simon Elegant, one of Time Asia's reporters, writes about China's "victim mindset" and draws an analogy:-Jill Savitt, Executive Director, Dream for Darfur
"To highlight these problems in the run up to the Olympics is inappropriate. It’s like on your daughter’s graduation ceremony, one of your friends tries to point out the fact that she is actually three months pregnant and doesn’t know who is the baby’s father."-Munir Ming
Both have valid points, but I tend to side with the latter view. Let China have its moment, then once it feels accepted as an equal in the international community, make it live up to the responsibilities of its new position.
3 comments:
Does China really feel inferior on an international level? I don't know when the last time China as a whole was considered "humble" (see: big wall, refusal to accept "white" technology, general hubris since 1949), and a part of me thinks that the problem might just be that. China thinks it should be held on par with the US, and subsequently get away with all of the various hypocrisies that the US gets away with. There won't exactly be any "living up" to its responsibilities under the current regime, because it just doesn't operate that way and can't operate that way.
I still maintain that Americanized democracy in China is bound to fail. Any minority party representing 100 million people suddenly matters a fair bit on a human scale, if not a political scale in China (especially if they don't even win representation). So while I'm not sure trusting the Communist party to be a benevolent and altruistic leader is the way to go, I think we can reasonably expect that there won't be any international responsibilities being lived up to while it's still at the helm.
On a governmental level, yes, you're right. But all the general public really knows is that in the last century, they've been screwed internationally by the Rape of Nanking and the Opium Wars, without a proper apology and little sympathy from outsiders. And now that they're trying to regain some of their former glory, they'd like some support. It's kinda like a kid in school getting told that he's dumb, and even when he graduates at the top of his class, people are still telling him he's a retard and that he'll never get anywhere. Enough's enough, in their mind.
I'm not sure the general masses quite understand what the responsibilities of a leading nation are, or the exact nature of the US's hypocrisies, but if they aren't made to feel like equals you'll never get their support. The longer the government here can show the people that it's "us against them" and not "we're part of a big happy international community", the easier it is for them to act in a manner that is China-selfish without fear of revolt from the proletariat.
Not to flog a dead horse here, but there is no democracy without a good proletarian revolt. Hasn't happened and won't happen, and democracy as the West would like will continue to fail until it does.
Caveat: as you know I'm more of a Realist in the poli sci sense, so bear that in mind.
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