When President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) stopped over in New York to receive the 2003 International Human Rights Award, Chinese students and expatriates gathered outside the venue to stage a noisy protest. A few days ago, in Northwest University in China's Xian City, obscene acts performed by four Japanese people in a skit triggered protests by thousands of Chinese students.
What's the significance behind these two protests?
Under China's continual brainwashing with nationalist ideology, the Chinese people have long harbored illusions about threats. Any small act viewed by Chinese as disrespectful is likely to trigger immense frustration and is therefore interpreted as a threat to China's national security. When everything is weighed on the level of "security," the significance displayed by words and actions actually reflects the Chinese people's limitless anxiety about security.
Although Chinese officialdom has continuously tried to create an environment of "peace and development," what the Chinese students have done is make it more difficult for the outside world to believe that China is a peace-loving country.
Similarly, in its Taiwan policy, China has always subjectively believed that Taiwan's independence will inevitably affect its security in the Asia-Pacific region. But it has never given a thought as to how much it has threatened Taiwan by deploying 400 missiles.
Due to China's stubborn cultural understanding of security, Chen's past soft approach has failed to move the stubborn stone. Prevalence of the "China threat theory" in the international community is actually a pernicious consequence China has brought upon itself.
Even so, it is beneficial for the survival of China's regime. When people imagine that all threats posed to the country come from the outside, the Communist Party of China can certainly sit back and relax. The agitated demonstrations by Chinese students and protests against foreigners are merely an instrument manipulated by Beijing.
Wang Kun-yi is an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies at Tamkang University.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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